
Rnnk PSi^ 



REVIEW 



THE MEXICAN ¥AR 



EMBRACING 



THE CAUSES OF THE WAR, "^2 7 -^ 

THE 

RESPONSIBILITY OF ITS COMMENCEMENT, 



PURPOSKS OF THE AJIEIUCAN GOVERNMENT TN ITS PR05- 
KCUTXON, ITS BKNEFITS AND ITS EVILS. 



BY CHARLES T. POETEE. 



AUT31JRN, N. Y. 
ALDEN & PAIISONS, 67 GENESEE STEEET, 






Eatered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year one thousand eight 
hundred and forty-nini", by 

ALDEN «5c PARSONS, 

In the Clerk's OSce of the United States, for the Nortliern District of 
New-York. 



F1:?:J & ROCKWELL riUNIERS. 
AUBURN. N. Y. 



PREFACE. 



It is the object of this essay to exhibit the true character of the war 
in which our country has lately been engaged. It aims to present in 
a clear and concise manner the fuels and cor.siderations v/hich will enable^^ 
the reader to form a coiTCct opiiiion concerning the causes of this contest, 
and llie motives and the excuses for its prosecution. 

it is it.s further design to give a view of the consequences of the war; to 
examine the benefit's which have been attributed to it, and the evils, near 
and remote, of wliich it ha? been the cause : to present tan duty and the 
true gloi7 and ambition of the U;.itcd States; and to point out the man- 
ner in Vi'hicli alone peace can bo tstdblished an'ioi.g civilized nations. 

It containd no allusion to political parlies. It is no part of its object 
to inquire v;hat share belongs to each of the giory or the shams of this 
war. The subjoct of slavery it has been the endeavor of tlie author to 
avoid. The belief that the acquisition of teiritory for the sole purpose 
of extending and perpetuating slavery has been the undivided purpose of 
our government and people i'ur tv/enty-five years ; that for this Texas was 
settled ; that urged by this motive alone, our -ntizens flew to the assist- 
ance of that State i.i her efforts to ebtablish her independence, and 
government winked at their participation in her struggle ; that for this 
alone Texas was annexed '. that for this alone war wns ui dertaken ; that 
government would never have sought this contest, had it apprehended 
that any por:ion of the teriitory which it desired would ever be secured 
10 freedom ; this belief is one to which he cannot subscribe. 



PREFACE. 



It cannot be pi-oven that the war had any necessary connection with sla- 
very. Annexation certainly was not its cause ; it only furnished an occa- 
sion for it. The circumstances, so far as they are yet known, seem best to 
warrant the belief that it was waged for the acijuisition of territory, irre- 
spective of the chaiacter which after legislation might impress upon that 
teiTitory. It was sustained alike by the north and the south. The spirit 
which impelled to it was confined to no section of the country. The 
north rivalled the south in greediness after the possessions of another, 
and in causeless vindictiveness toward a weak and disti'acted nation. 

The war is here considered as an act, the responsibility of which rests 
upon the people of the United States, the whole people, the mass of 
whom, without distinction of section or of party, either aided in its com- 
, mencement or sympathized with its objects and united in its prosecution. 

The work must stand or fall, according to its own merits. If the views 
advanced in it are sound, and its arguments have weight, it v,-ill proba- 
bly make its way ; if not, it must suffer the consequences. If it is wor- 
thy of being read, it doubtless will be ; if it is unworthy, it will be unfor- 
tunate for the publisher. 



CONTESTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Introduction. Annexation of Texas. The Occasion of the War. 
Influences which led to Annexation. Geographical unity. Political sym- 
pathy. Desinj of the South to increase her weiaht in the Union. Fear 
of British encroachnnent. Supposed military advantages of Texas. The 
resolution of Congress. 



CHiVrTER II. 

Ajjnkxation continued. Justness of the act toward Mexico. The 
right of Mexico to sovereignty over Texas. If possessed at all after her 
revolution of 1834^35, lost afiei-wards hy her neglect to enforce it. Her 
claim in effect ab^loned. Texas became independent of right by the 
Mexican i-evolution of lS34-'35. Expediency of annexation. To be 
considered here only so far as it effected our relations with Mexico. 



CHAPTER III. 

A View of some of the leading events in the intercourse between the 
two countries, from August, 1843. to October 1345; showing that the 
djesign of declaring war pgainst the United States on account of annexa- 
tion, if ever seriously entertained by Mexico, was at the last date entirely 
abandoned. The advance to Corpus Christi. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Mission of Mr. Slidell. The lefusal to receive him. Political 
situation of Mexico on the arrival of our Minister. Her conduct con^ 



vi CONTENTS. 



sl^tent. Duty of ths United States. The coin"e adontpd by our ffov- 
crnment. Fiill of Herrera. Th^ rrfas'il to send a commiasioner threw 
upon our government the responsibihty of future hostilities. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Jidvancfi of our Army to the Rio Crando. This movement a vio- 
lation of the rights of jMexico. \vhit;h hud bee;: recognized by our Gov- 
erument it:=elf. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Th* advancp to tbf> Rio Grojide an invasion of the territory of Mexi- 
co. Louisiana a* ci'ded to n=. by France in 1303 exter.ded no farther 
we?t than to the Neuces. This river the western boundary of the vSpan- 
i<h province of Tpxms prior to ff^^O. The same river the boundary of 
the Mexican State r>f Texas. Texn:^ after her independence never in 
any l=>!^al munner enlarged her teniforv. T\\p ctrin of country in ques- 
tion in the ex'"bi«ive po=;-;r'=!?ion of Mexico in 1H4G. Government aware 
at the time the order for the advance was issued that it would be an inva- 
sion. 

CHAPTER VII. 

The liivriiion of Mexico tlie sole cau-e of the War. Tone of the 
Mexican Mini^^rer. Proclamation of Mcjia. Froere^-' of General Tay- 
lor. Order of I'aredes. Hi> Proclamuion. Letter of Ampudia. Aris- 
ta gives notice that he shall prosecute hostilities. ^ 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Thp. Object of this movement of our Arniv. The reason given by tiie 
Executive not the real motive, as proved by the circumstance-^ « f the 
case, and by the dispatches to Mr. Shd^^ll. The provocations urged by our 
government considen'd. The war de<ign«^d to be broui^ht abou« in such 
a. manner as to throw on Mexico tho odium of its commencement. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Declaration of War. The duty of Congress. The consequen- 
ces which would have followed the performance of tliat duty. 

CHAPTER X. 

The Objects of the War. Conquest. Its Progress. The Treaty 
of peacw> 



CONTEXTS. 



CHAPTEil XI. 

T'riy. Benefilri of the War cniiflidercd. The p^ympnt of the claim* of 
our citizoiis ug;\inst Moxico, The n.cqiiisinon (it tcnitory. Value of this 
coiK|uo6t to tlio United iStates. luid to :iie cause of fieedum. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Thk Es'ii s attending- the War. Its Expense. Its Loss of Life— in bat- 
tle — bv disease. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Duty of thr- Uiiirrd St;ire=!. towmd other nations enhanced liy her 
nn-iirioii. Her dutv to Mexico, in parucular. 1 he su duties violuted by 
ins War. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

The Tnnaence of this War upon our nationnl chnracter, nrd en tha 
crtu^p nf Liberty and of Chri^tiaiiity at home and abroad. Jl has intro- 
du',:pd ciitne and vice amons: u.?. It ha:s awakened a spirit of conquesto 
It has lowered the standard of public inordiiiy in our countt^. 



CHAPTER XY. 

Of the csiabiishmenr of permanent peace anrion^: civih"zed nations. 
Thp means liy whicli this olije^t ran be attained. The necessity which 
will justify a iiation in resorting to artns. Piospect of tbs triumph of 
peace. 



REVIEW 

OF 

THE MEXICAN ¥AR 



CHAPTER I. 



I.NTUODUCTjo.v. Ajmexation of Texas. Tlu^ occasion of the War. In- 
fluences which led to annexation. Geographical Unity. Political 
sympathy. Desire of the Sou»h to int^rease her weight in the Union. 
Fear of Britisli encroachment. Supposed military advantages of 
Texas. The resolution of Congress. 

The war wdtli Mexico lias become matter 
of liistory. Tlie excitement inseparable from 
contention, wliicli few minds ai'e able to resist, 
lias passed away ; and calm reflection comes, 
as is too nsiial in liuman affairs, after tlie action 
whicli it should liave preceded. 

We intend in tlie following pages to present 
a review of tliis Avar, in which it shall be our 
aim to state historical facts v/itli accuracy, and 
to examine them by the principles of Christiani- 
ty and an enlightened statesmanship. We shall 
take a full survey of the causes which led to 



10 REVIEW OF THE 

tliis contest, and point out tlie means whicli 
sliould liare been adopted by our government 
to prevent it. We sliall examine its objects, 
as well as its benefits and evils, botli immedi- 
ate and remote, and sliall endeavor to explain 
tlie human agencies wlilcli m:iy ba employed 
to hasten the time when nations shall learn war 
no more. And may the minds of our country- 
men be so seriou^l}^ led to the consideration of 
this event, that its history shall be an instruc- 
tion and a warning to us and to our children 
forever. 

The annexation of Texas to tlie United States 
must be regarded as the primary occasion of 
the war, since had that measure not been adopt- 
ed the circumstances out of which the war arose 
could never have existed. Viewing it in this 
light, w^e shall, before proceeding to those events 
w^hich were the more im.mediate causes of the 
contest, devote a fevv' pages to its examination. 

The influences wdiich led to annexation were 
numerous and varied. The impression had 
become sreneral amon^ our citizens that the 
United States, by the treaty of 1819, surren- 
dered to Spain a part of the western valley of 
the Mississippi, and a strong desire existed to 
recover it. This desire arose in part from the 



MEXICAN WAR. U 



fact tliat tlie country was contiguous to our 
own, and was separated from us by no natu- 
ral boundary, as well as from its commercial 
advantages, tlie mildness of its climate, and tlie 
fertility of its soil. It originated partly, also, 
in an ambition for the undivided ownership of 
that vast rei^ion whose waters unitinsr in the 
Mississippi declare iU geographical unity. The 
inhabitants of Texas were mostly emigi'ants 
from the United States. 

There appeared, also, otlier considerations, 
some of a general, others of a sectional nature, 
hj w^hich the country was then strongly agita- 
ted, and the effect of which, undoubtedly, was 
to hasten annexation. The southern states 
generally advocated the immediate adoption of 
the measure for two reasons. The slavehold- 
ing and planting interest was in the minority 
in congress. The admission of two new^ north- 
ern states w^as anticipated, and the acquisition 
of Texas would tend to ecjualise northern and 
southern representation, especially in the sen- 
ate. They insisted, moreover, and at the time 
it was generally believed, that it was the de- 
sign of England to procure the abolition of 
slavery in Texas, and that object effected, to 
undermine the institution in this country. It 



13 REVIEW OF THE 



was declared, tliat witli them the question of 
annexation was one of self-preservation. The 
ultimate design of Great Britain many apj^re- 
hended to be no less than to establish her own 
authority in Texas, or at least to form an alli- 
ance offensive and defensive with that state ; 
and it was urged, that w^ere the union again 
refused, a wide door w^ould be oj)ened for her 
success ; that not only might w^e loose Texas 
forever, but California and the future com- 
merce of the Pacific, which that power was 
thought to aim at, might fall into her posses- 
sion. 

It was still further contended that the im- 
mediate possession of Texas was necessary to 
our future national safety ; that it would con- 
stitute a bulw^ai'k against foreign invasion ; and 
that if refused novf, Avhen offered to our accept- 
ance, it might be desired by us in vaiji in an 
hour of emergency. 

The effect of these arguments on the popu- 
lar mind was doubtless heightened by the very 
uncertamty in which they were wrapped, and 
the apparent urgency perhaps caused many 
objections to the measure to be lightly consid- 
ered which under ordinary circumstances might 
for the time have caused its rejection. 



MEXICAN WAR. 13 



In February, 1845, congress by joint reso- 
lution consented '' tliat the territory properly 
included within and rightfully belonging to 
the republic of Texas be erected into a state" 
on certain conditions, one of which was, that 
it should be "subject to the adjustment by 
this government of all questions of boundary 
that may arise with other governments." The 
terms of annexation having been accepted by 
Texas, congress in December following declar- 
ed, " that the state of Texas shall be one, and 
is hereby declared to be one of the United 
States of America." 



14 REVIEW OF THE 



CHAPTEK II 



Annkxation continup(3. Justness of uie act Inward Mexico. The right 
of Mexico to sovcroisftity over Texas. If possessed at all alter her 
revoiiilion of 183l-'35, lost afterwards by her ueelect to enforce it. 
Her cliiiin in effect tibdudoned. Texas he ;ame independent of right 
l>y the Mexican revolution of 1S'.3'1-'3j. Ex[:ediency cif annexation. 
Annexati'in to he considered here only £o fur as it effected our rela- 
tions with Mexico. 

In considering this act of our government, 
the question first arises, was the measure just 
toward Mexico. That republic contended that 
Texas was an integral part of her territory, a 
rebellious province which she intended to sub- 
due ; and she denounced the annexation as a 
violation by the United States of their neutral- 
ity and treaty stipulations, as a national rob- 
bery, and as one of the greatest outrages re- 
corded in history. 

We beheve that tliis claim and charge were 
entirely without foundation ; tliat in this pro- 
ceedino' the United States did not ^dolate their 
neutrality or their treaty, nor interfere in the 
least with any right of Mexico. This we shall 
endeavor to show. 



MEXICAN WAR. 15 



Tlie common consent of mankind lias ^xed 
a limitation to national claims, and assigned a 
period to the right of re-conquest. It lias be- 
come a law of nations, tliat if a claim of sove- 
reignty is not prosecuted with adequate means, 
and within a reasonable period, the government 
asserting it must suffer the consequences of its 
inaction. Other nations have a right to regard 
its pretension as abandoned, and to consider 
any subsequent attempt to enforce it as a wrong- 
ful invasion. Mexico herself furnishes an illus- 
tration in point. Spain refused to acknowledge 
her independence for more than fifteen years 
after its establishment. She protested against 
its recognition by other powers, declaiing her 
determination to re-conquer her lost possessions. 
But the world treated her in all respects as in- 
dependent de jure^ and the United States in 
1825, '27 and '29, considered her competent to 
convey a perfect title to Texas. The last was 
thought to be a favorable occasion to renew 
the offer for the purchase of that territory, as 
Mexico would need the purchase money in re- 
sisting ^' the Spanish invasion." 

Let us ap})ly this well-established principle 
to the present case. At the time of the an- 
nexation Texas had been independent of Mex- 



16 REVIEW OF THE 



ico for nine years. Her independence had 
been recognized by tbe United States, England, 
France, Belgium, and Holland. Mexico bad 
protested against tbese acts, bad declared ber 
determination to re-conquer tliat state, ar.d 
bad waged, on paper, a furious war against it. 
But, mtb a single exception, Texas remained 
all tbat time in undisturbed tranquility, doing 
"all tbose acts and tilings v»diicb independent 
states may of rigbt do," attracting by ber equal 
laws, ber genial climate and fertile soil emi- 
grants from all parts of tbe world, developing 
ber resources, and increasing in strength and 
stability. 

Tbe exception to wbicb we bave alluded oc- 
curred in tbe year 1842, wben Mexico sent 
tbree marauding expeditions into Texas to pil- 
lage ber defenceless border settlements. Tbe 
first party of seven hundred took the callage 
of San Antonio. Tbe second, numbering about 
eight hundred, attacking a com23any of some 
two hundred emigrants, were defeated and 
driven out of tbe country. The third, a mot- 
ley collection of nearly thirteen hundred men, 
took San Antonio a second time by surprise. 
Pursued by a small body of Texans under 
General Somerville, they hastily retreated, car* 



MEXICAN WAR. if 



lying away, how^ever, the judges and attend- 
ants of tlie court tlien in session, witli otlier 
unarmed and peaceful citizens into capti^dty 
After tlie "battle of San Jacinto, these tliree 
barbarous, j^lundering expeditions, not one of 
wHcli remained in tlie country longer than 
eight days, were the only hostile attacks which 
Mexico had made on the territory of Texas. 

Our secretary of state, Mr. Webster, says 
in 1842 : " From the battle of San Jacinto the 
war was at an end." " Mexico may choose to 
consider Texas as a rebellious province, but 
the world has been obliged to take a very dif- 
ferent view of the matter." "Texas has ex- 
hibited the same external signs of national in- 
dependence as Mexico herself." " Practically 
free and independent, acknowledged as a po- 
litical sovereignty by the principal powers of 
the w^orld, no hostile foot finding rest within 
her territory for six or seven years, and Mexi- 
co herself refraining for all that period from 
any further attempt to re-establish hei' own 
authority, the United States must consider 
Texas as an independent sovereignty as mucli 
as Mexico." " How long, let it be asked, in 
the judgment of Mexico herself," he inquires, 
"is the fact of actual independence to be held 



18 REVIEW OF THE 



of no avail against an avov/ed purpose of fu- 
ture re-conquest V 

Three years of continued inaction had suc- 
ceeded the six or seven to which Mr. Webster 
alludes. For nine successive years, then, Mex- 
ico had not niad.e a single attempt to establish 
her claim ; foi* the incursions before described 
were entirely inadequate and useless, and evi- 
dently not designed as attempts to effect any 
such object. They cannot be allowed to have 
had any higher purpose than injury and plun- 
der. Certainly, if the claim of Mexico could 
not tlien be considered, as abandoned, and the 
rii^'htful inderjendence of Texas as established, 
it would be very difficult to say at what period 
such a judgment would have been warranted. 

All publicists agree, that a nation's right to 
lost possessions ceases when all probable hope 
of recovery is at an enrl. And this is a rea- 
sonable and just rule ; l)ecause the rights of in- 
dividuals and states cannot be suffered to re- 
main suspended, while an unreasonable nation 
persists in indulging its spleen, and in exhibit- 
ing its oljstinacy. Now Mexico was notorious- 
ly unable to re-conquer Texas. She was as- 
serting a claim, the enforcement of which, al- 
ways hopeless, had^rown for nine years more 



MEXICAN WAR. 



19 



and more manifestly impossible. An obli- 
gation rests upon all nations to enforce, or 
to abandon tlieir claims of sovereignty. Tlie 
right to re-assert tliem does not descend, as 
Mexico contended, to children and children's 
children. A claim, as oiir secretary of state, 
Mr. Upsher, very justly declared, must be 
enforced seasonably, or abandoned for the 
peace and commerce of the rest of the world. 
The history of Europe presents several in- 
stances in which her states have united to 
compel obedience to this just rule. Eno-- 
land, at that time the greatest power in the 
vforld, recognized this obligation, and after 
vainly endeavoring to reduce the American 
colonies to submission, when she saw that the 
attempt was hopeless, immediately acknow- 
ledged them to be free and independent. But 
Mexico sat like the dog in the manger, and it 
was the right, nay, it was the duty of all na- 
tions to disregard her thi-eatening and her 
claims. Moreover, by an express act she ac- 
knowledged this o])ligation, in consenting to 
recognize the independence of Te^as, if the 
latter v»^ould stipulate not to b)ecome annexed 
to the United States, ^ow in viev/ of these 
plain fects, to what judgment can a candid 



% REVIEW OF THE 



world arrive, except tliat at tlie time of the 
annexation Mexico had forfeited and lost any 
sovereignty over Texa? which she might be- 
fore have possessed. 

But moreover, this claim of Mexico was in 
the beginning unfounded and unjust. Texas, 
by the Mexican revolution of 1834-35, became 
of right as Avell as in fact independent, and 
Mexico at that time, ])}' her ov\'n act, lost her 
former sovereignty over hei*. On the estab- 
lishment of the constitutional government in 
1824, Texas, by a decree of the congress of 
Mexico, was united vrith Coahuila, as a " con- 
stituent and sovereign state of the Mexican 
confederacy." 

The principles on which that union was 
founded appears not to differ in any essential 
particular from those of our own. The con- 
stitution declared the ]^Iexican government to 
be a " popuLar, representative, federal repub- 
lic." The powers of its congress, and the ju- 
risdiction of its supreme court, were similar to 
those of the United States. 

The constitution of Coahuila and Texas, sanc- 
tioned by the general government, declared 
that state to be " free and independent of the 
other Mexican states," and that the sovereign- 



MEXICAN WAR, 21 



ty of tlie state resided "originally and essen- 
tially in tlie great mass of tlie individuals wlio 
compose it." Tliat instrument also declared, 
tliat ''in all matters relating to tlie Mexican 
confederacy, tlie state delegates its faculties 
and powers to tlie general congix^ss ; but in 
all tJiat properly relates to tlie goyernment of 
tlie state, it retains its liberty, independence 
and sovereignty." 

In tlie year 1884, Santa Anna, tlien ])resi- 
dent of Mexico, at the liead of tlie army, dis- 
solved tlie federal congress, and abolished the 
council of government, whose authority he 
took into his o^v^n hands. A detachment of 
troops at the same time entered the territory 
of Texas, demanded the surrender of several 
of her principal citizens, and in accordance 
with a general order, attempted to disarm the 
inhabitants. The people of Texas resisted 
these demands, protected their fellows-citizens, 
and drove the army from their soil. They 
then published a manifesto, in which they de- 
clared that Santa Anna had broken the polit- 
ical compact of Mexico, tlnit the government 
unconstitutionally established by that usurper 
had no authority over Texas, and that the 
people of that state were no longer morally 



22 REVIEW OF THE 



or civilly bouncl by tlie compact of union. 
Tliey declared that tliey liad taken np arms 
only to resist tyranny and to uphold the con- 
stitution, and that they were ready to assist 
the other Mexican states in re-establishing the 
republic. 

It is plain that in this Santa Anna, and not 
Texas, rebelled against the government. There 
existed no difi'erence between her obligation to 
defend that government and her ow^n liberties 
against him, and her obligation to defend them 
against a foreign invader, intent upon their 
destruction. 

In the following year Santa Anna, by a mil- 
itary edict, transformed the states into departs 
ments, and clothed the general government 
with the entire sovereignty. Many of the 
states declared against this outrage. Of these, 
some were reduced to obedience by force, and 
agamst others, from vrhich a more formidable 
resistance was apprehended, the basest treach- 
ery was employed to eifect their subjection. 

Having at length secured a supremacy in 
the other states, Santa Anna dissolved the le- 
gislature of Coahuila and Texas at the point 
of the bayonet, and marched to the subjuga- 
tion of the latter. 



MEXICAN WAR. 2? 



That state, after tlie overtlirow of tlie gov- 
ernmeat, tlie destruction of the federal consti- 
tutioii, and the final siiljmission of the otlier 
states to the usurper, on the 2nd of March, 
1836, declared herself mdependent, and in the 
following month esta])lislied her declaration 
by overthrowing the Mexican army on the 
plains of San Jacinto and driving its ^'reck 
beyond her bord.ers. 

By this successful resistance against the rev- 
olution in Mexico, Texas preserved the sove- 
reignty wdiich she had possessed under the con- 
stitution, and of wdiich Santa Anna had failed 
to deprive her, and regained that which she had 
delegi-ted to the general congress, and thus be- 
came an independent sovereign state, in the 
fullest sense of that term. For the mere edict 
of Santa Anna was of no effect to talie away 
her rights from Texas ; she could loose them 
only by voluntary or necessary surrender. By 
the theory of the ^lexican government all 
sovereignty resided oi'iginally in the people, 
and the general government possessed such 
powers and such only as the people by their 
constitution hadi granted to it. Yv^hen the go- 
vernment w^hich the people had instituted vf as 
destroyed, the depositary of this power no Ion- 



24 REVIEW OF THE 



ger existing, the grant, wliicli could not remain 
in abeyance, reverted to the people. 

The government established by Santa Anna 
could not exercise rightful jurisdiction over 
Texas, for no competent authority had granted 
to it the power. The only restraint on the 
entire sovereignty of Texas was contained in 
the constitution of the United Mexican States. 
The liinding force of that instrument ha^dng 
l:)een destroyed, the only restraint upon her 
was gone, and she was by the usurping act of 
Santa Anna free and independent. Her dec- 
laration Avas only the announcement of a fact 
that existed ^vithout her as^encv, and which 
undeclared would have been no less a fact. 

It will be o])served that the revolution was 
not by Texas, but against her. Its object was 
to change her from an independent state to a 
pro^dnce of a consolidated military poAver. If 
her independence had rested on the right of 
revolution, it Avould have existed subject for a 
time to the right of re-conquest. Her inde- 
pendence d^ jure would not be established un- 
til it had been acknowledged by her former 
government, or the right to re-conquer her had 
been lost bv neoiect. But she had never re- 
volted. The revolution in Mexico, failing to 



MEXICAN WAR 25 



despoil her of the sovereignty which she pos- 
sessed as a state of that confederacy, and de- 
stroying the only political restraint, the only 
superior government which she had before 
know^n, left her entirely free and sovereign. 

It follows, then, that the invasion of Texas 
in 1836 was an attempt by a foreign tyrant to 
conquer an independent state, to subjugate a 
free peo23le ; and that the recognition of her 
independence by the government of Santa 
Anna, or its successors, was no more necessary 
to its completeness than would have been its 
acknowledgment by any other government 
which had never exercised sovereignty over 
her, and to which she had never ow^ed allegi- 
ance. 

From tjiese. considerations it follows, that 
the annexation of Texas to the United States 
was a measure which mvolved no right of 
Mexico, and which furnished to her no cause 
of complaint. 

It is said that war existed between the two 
countries, and that by the annexation we as- 
sumed the w^ar. It follows from what we have 
seen, that if Mexico had then renewed her war 
against Texas, it would have been an unjust 
invasion. However, then, the question should 



Ij\i 



26 REVIEW OF THE 



have heeii considered in tlie liglit of expedi- 
ency, it is clear that our duty to Mexico did 
not require us to refrain from tlie adoption of 
the measure because an unjust invasion by her 
might be apprehended. We arrive then at the 
conchision that this act of our government was 
consistent with exact justice to Mexico. 

But this is not the only view of the case 
which our subject presents. There arises in 
the consideration of this measure another ques- 
tion scarcely inferior in interest and impor- 
tance: Was it the part of wisdom at that 
time to exercise this right which the United 
States possessed ? 

It does not belong to us in this essay, be it 
understood, to examine the domestic questions 
to w^hich annexation gave rise^ or to discuss 
the character of that measure as viewed in a 
domestic light. Its consideration lies within 
the province of this vrork only so far as it ef- 
fected our relations vrith Mexico, and w^as the 
occasion of the war. 

Was the annexation of Texas expedient and 
right, in view of the effects upon our relations 
wdth Mexico, which might reasonably have 
been apprehended from it ? This is the only 
question which remains for us to examine ; with 



MEXICAN WAR 27 



the propriety or impropriety of tlie measure 
in other respects we have here nothing to do. 

We ]>elieve annexation at that time to have 
heen in this respect inexpedient and wrong. 
It Avas certain that its tendency wonkl be to 
alienate from ns the good v/ill of the Mexican 
people and government, to interrupt the har- 
mony which should exist between the two re- 
publics, and to arouse illiberal and unfriendly 
feelings. 

The boundary betvreen Texas and Mexico 
was unsettled, and it T^-as urged that by this 
act we should involve ourselves in a dispute 
with Mexico, vrhich might be productive of 
difficulty, and perhaps of unha]3py consequen- 
ces. Experience has sIio^ti that this appre- 
hension was too well founded. Moreover, Mex- 
ico had announced to the world that she should 
consider the proposed annexation a sufficient 
cause of war, and should iight for the mainten- 
ance of her rights. The probability that she 
would put her threat into execution, and actu- 
ally undertake a vv^ar so unjust, so idle, and for 
the support of which she wa^ so entirely desti- 
tute of resources, was certainly not very strong, 
but such an event was by no means impossi- 
ble. 



REVIEW OF THE 



It would surely have been unwise for tlie 
United States to liave adopted a measure from 
wliicli consequences sucli as tliese raiglit be ap- 
prehended, without an adequate reason. Did 
any such reason exist in this case ? The many 
bonds of sympathy between our country and 
Texas ; the unity of position, of people, of cli- 
mate, of products, of interests, together with 
the political situation of the rest of the conti- 
nent, rendered it evident that the cpiestion of 
annexation was one of time alone — that from 
the silent iniiuence of natural causes that new- 
born republic must at some early day become 
a portion of our own. '' As respects Texas,'' 
said Mr. Benton, " her destmy is fixed" 

Time has shown that a very undue impor- 
tance was attached to tlie considerations which 
precipitated the adoption of that measure. It 
is now generally admitted that the apprehen- 
sion of British interference in any manner 
which should have influenced our action on 
that question was entirely groundless. 

The idea so much dwelt upon, of the great 
value of the country as a means of national 
defence, and of the necessity of acquiring its 
possession instantly, was shown at the time to 
be unwarranted and ,^asionary, finding favor 



MEXICAN WAR. OQ 



witli tlie j)eo]:)le by its boldness and blindness, 
but turning out wlien examined by facts and 
figures to l)e only a baseless dream. Tliougli 
the measure cannot he I'egarded as unjust to- 
ward Mexico, still we must admit that we had 
no immediate use for the country, and that our 
people peiinitted \'ague and idle apprehensions 
to blind them against the very serious and un- 
liappy consequences which might reasonably 
have been apprehended from its annexation ; 
that in an hour of excitement they rushed, 
without cause and without leiiection, to the 
attainment of an object whose ultimate posses- 
sion was certain, and which at another time 
might have been secured under far better au- 
spices. 

But, besides all this, the act was wrong ; for 
no nation has the right knowingly to 2)ut its 
own tranquility, and the harmony of the world 
in jeopardy; to incur the danger of a war 
without a great necessity ; but it is its higli 
duty to sacrifice its own apparent intei'est, if 
necessary, to the pi'oinotion and perpetuation 
of peace. 



30 REVIEW OF THE 



CHAPTEK III 



A VIEW of some of the leading events in the intiTcourse botweea the 
two countries, from August, 18 43, to October, 1845, siiowin^ that the 
design of declaring war agiiinst the United Sttites on accouut of annex- 
ation, if ever seriously entertained, was at t!ie last date e:itire!y aban- 
doned by Mexico. The advance to Corpus Christi. 

We liave in tlie preceding cliapters exam- 
in<3d the measure of annexation from every 
point of view from wliicli it can he considei'cd 
as effecting our relations witli Mexico. We 
liave sliown it to have ]jeen tlie primary occa- 
sion of tlie late nnliappy war. We have point- 
ed out the influences by which it was brought 
about. We liave e^^amined its abstract just-, 
ness tow^ard Mexico, and have seen that it af- 
forded to that republic no ground of com- 
plaint. We have considered its expediency, 
and have found it to have been, althougli not 
unjust, yet unwise and v/rong. 

Though the annexation of Texas, effected at 
a period of much excitement, and under the 
influences which we have described, must be 



MEXICAN WAR. 31 



regarded as the occasion of tlie war, it was 
not its efficient cause. The war was not its 
necessary consequence. We shall see as we 
proceed that, had the subsequent conduct of 
the United States been marked by conciliation 
and forbearance, there is every, probability that 
ail differences growing out of this measure 
would have been amicably settled by negotia- 
tion. 

The Mexican government first takes official 
notice of the project for annexation in August 
1843, T^^hen its minister of foreign relations, 
Mr. Bocanegra, wiites to our minister that ^' the 
Mexican ccovernmeiit has collected sufficient 
evidence from the American press that a pro- 
position for the incorporation of the so-called 
republic of Texas is to be submitted to con- 
gress at its next session," and adds that his '' go- 
vernment will consider the passage of such an 
act as equivalent to a declaration of war against 
the Mexican republic." 

The next month the same functionary writes 
again, that " Mexico will regard the annexation 
of Texas as a hostile act." General Almonte, 
the Mexican minister, resident at Washington, 
announces to our secretary of state, in Novem- 
ber following, that '' Mexico must consider such 



* 
32 REVIEW OF THE 



an act as a direct asforression, and is resolved 
to delare war as soon as it sliall receive infor- 
mation of its adoption." Mr. Bocanegra, im- 
mediately after the treaty of annexation liad 
been sent to tlie senate, issues a circular to 
the foreign ministers ]*esident in Mexico, in 
whicli lie styles tlie act " a declaration of war 
between tlie two nations:" General Almonte, 
a few days after tlie resolution of congress 
consenting to annexation liad been approved 
by tlie president, demands liis passports and 
returns to Mexico. In tlie following month, 
April, 1845, Mexico breal^s off lier diplomatic 
relations with the United States in her own 
capital, declaring that the territory of Texas 
belonged to her by a right which she will 
maintain at whatever cost. In June next, pre- 
sident Herrera issues a proclamation, announ- 
cing that Mexico -^dll resist by arms the pro- 
posed annexation. 

This surely appears warlike enough. It 
would seem as if the indignation of Mexico 
had indeed been aroused, and that she was de- 
termined never to endure the indignity and 
wrongs to which she fancied herself about to 
be subjected. But high sounding words are 
very cheap in Mexico^ Her actual forcible op- 



MEXICAN WAR. 33 



position to tlie measure was in strange contrast 
witli lier tlireats. We will go back in our nar- 
rative a year before the time of President Her- 
rera's proclamation, wlien the warlike farce 
began. 

In June, 1844, Santa Anna, then jjresident 
of Mexico, issues a requisition for thirty thou- 
sand men and four millions of dollars to pros- 
ecute the Avar against Texas. A large force 
is raised, and such is the despatch that before 
the same month is pcissed we find the invading 
army encamped at Mier, on the very border 
of the devoted state. General Woll, being- 
instructed by his government to wage a war 
of extermination, then makes a proclamation 
denouncing the traitor's doom against every 
person found beyond the distance of one league 
from the Rio Grande. 

Santa Anna at the same time publishes a 
decree, that every foreio-ner found on Mexican 
soil with arms in his hands should instantly be 
put to death without quarter or distinction. 
But no action whatever follows this exhibition 
of paper ferocity. Texas remains undisturbed, 
and the Mexican army remains at Mier. 

In the winter following Herrera is chosen to 
2 



§ 
34 REVIEW OF THE 



succeed Santa Anna in tlie presidency of Mex- 
ico. Tlie new administration takes no hostile 
step. The army still remains at Mier. 

In July, 1845, more than a year after the 
'army of invasion had Leen raised by Santa 
Anna, General Taylor, under orders issued by 
our government at the request of the state of 
Texas, advances with his army to Corpus 
Christi, on the right bank of the Nueces, 

This movement revives for a time the Mex- 
ican proclamation fever. General Arista, com- 
manding one of the divisions of the ''grand 
army" designed for the invasion of Texas, and 
General Paredes, commanding the army of re- 
serve, issue each a furious proclamation, breath- 
ing vengeance and slaughter, and announcing 
the determination instantly to drive the inva- 
ders from their soil. This being over^ all sub- 
sides again into perfect tranquility ; the army 
is marched into distant parts of the republic, 
and its leaders turn their minds to domestic 
commotion. General Taylor writes thus from 
Corpus Christi: "No extraordinary prepara- 
tions are going forward at Matamoros, the gar- 
rison does not seem to have been increased, 
and our consul at that place is of the opinion 



MEXICAN WAH. 35 



that tliere will be no declaration o f war." " The 
border people on both sides of the river are 
friendly." '^ There are no troops of any con- 
sequence on or near the Rio Grande." Such 
is the unvarying tenor of his desj)atches, up to 
the day on which he was ordered forv\^ard to 
that disputed river. 

The propriety of the movement of our ar- 
my to Cor23us Christi might on some accounts 
be questioned. But as the matter never as- 
sumed any practical importance, as Mexico 
did not object to it when in Octol^er following 
she requested our fleet to be withdrawn from 
the Gulf before negotiations should be opened, 
as it was not alluded to as a wrongful act in 
the subsequent correspondence between the 
two governments, and was soon lost sight of 
behind events of greater magnitude, we shall 
not dwell further upon it. 



36 REVIEW OF THE 



CHAPTEE IV. 



The Mission of Mr. Slidell. The refusal to receive him. Political sit- 
uiition of Mexico on the arrival of our Minister. Her conduct con- 
sistent. Duty of the United States. The course adopted by our gov- 
ernment. Fall of Herrera. The refusal to send a commissioner threw 
upon our government the responsibihty of future hostilities. 

The annexation of Texas to tlie United States 
had awakened in Mexico a strong feeling of 
resentment. The administration of Herrera, 
liowever, thouofli on this account it found it 
necessary to continue its menaces, and keep 
up a show of opposition, was evidently dis- 
posed to peace. 

Our executive, convinced of the amicable 
disposition of the Mexican government, ad- 
dressed to it an inquiry in October, 1845, while 
General Taylor was at Corpus Christi, to as- 
certain W' hether " an envoy from the United 
States, entrusted with full powers to adjust 
all the questions in dispute between the two 



MEXICAN WAR. 37 



governments" would be received. The Mexi- 
can minister replied, that his government was 
disposed to receive '•''tlie commissioiwr of the 
United States who might come vf ith full pow- 
ers to settle the present dis-imte in a peaceful, 
reasonable and honorable manner." 

The promj^tness and cordiality of this reply 
evince a sincere desire for the restoration of 
friendship. Immediately on its receipt, Mr. 
Slidell was appointed by the president, envoy 
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to 
reside near the government of Mexico. That 
government refused to receive him in this ca- 
pacity, stating that they had only consented 
to receive a commissioner for the settlement 
of the present dispute, and that they could 
not renew diplomatic intercourse, until the dif- 
ficulty on account of which it had been broken 
off should be first adjusted. 

It has been attempted to charge Mexico with 
inconsistency in this matter, and with inten- 
tionally insulting the United States by \dola- 
ting her word. A view of the circumstances 
of the case will, we think, afford to every can- 
did mind a vindication of her conduct. 

The arrival of Mr. Slidell in that country 



• 
38 REVIEW OF THE 



occurred at an unfortunate moment. During 
tlie few weeks that had elapsed since the prom- 
ise to receive a commissioner, a sudden storm 
had darkened the political sky of Mexico, and 
the administration of Herrera was already ben- 
ding' before it. Its amicable \ievrs were dis- 
pleasing to a majority of the people, its tem- 
porizing policy had disappointed the army. 
Taking advantage of the discontent of both, 
Paredes, ha\dng raised the cry for the recov- 
ery of Texas. wt.s threatening its overthrow. 

Under these circumstances the arrival of 
the American minister was a serious cause of 
alarm to the government. We have no rea- 
son to doubt its sincere desire to redeem its 
promise. Mr. Slidell himself says, that he be- 
lieves the president and his cabinet to be real- 
ly desirous to enter frankly upon a negotiation 
vs^hich would terminate all their difficulties 
with the United States. But the administra- 
tion appeared to be conscious that his imme- 
diate reception W'Ould destroy the last hope 
w^hich they entertained of vfithstanding the 
popular storm. 

In this state of anxiety and alarm, the gov- 
ernment attempted to defer his recognition 



MEXICAN WAR. 39 



until after tlie meeting of tlie new congress 
on the first of January, in tlie liope tliat if 
they could hold over until that time, they 
would then be able to maintain their position. 
When the United States consul at Mexico an- 
nounced to the government the arrival of Mr. 
Slidell at Vera Cruz, he w^as replied to that 
they were not prepared for his reception. 
When informed by the consul, on the 8th of 
December, of his presence in the capital, the 
minister of foreign relations expressed his re- 
gret that his arrival had not been delayed for 
a month, and in a conversation marked by 
great frankness and sincerity, represented the 
difficulties and fears of the administi'ation, and 
stated that nothing positive could be done un- 
til the meeting of the new congress. This in- 
terview took place before the credentials of 
Mr. Slidell had been opened, and up to this 
time it was certainly the purpose of the gov- 
ernment to receive him, as soon as it could be 
done consistently with the safety of the ad- 
ministration, and the success of his mission. 

On the examination of these credentials, 
however, they were found to be tlie same as 
those which had been presented by former 



40- REVIEW OF THE 

ministers, liaving no reference to any questions 
in dispute, as if the friendly intercourse be- 
tween the two countries had never been inter- 
rupted. The question of receiving a resident 
minister from the United States was immedi- 
ately laid before the council of government, 
and in accordance with its ad^dce, on the 21st 
of December, the government communicated 
to Mr. Slidell its refusal to receive him in that 
capacity ; stating that they had only consent- 
ed to receive a commissioner to settle the pres- 
ent dispute, and that to this object solely they 
expected the mission would have been direct- 
ed. The minister of foreign relations at the 
same time stated that the sentiments in w^hich 
a willingness to receive a commissioner were 
first expressed still remained unchanged, and 
that his government would still be happy to 
open negotiations for the peaceful settlement 
of the existing difficulty. 

Here was a change of purpose instant upon 
the examination of the credentials of the min- 
ister. There was no hesitation, no objection on 
any other ground, but a determination that 
he could not be received, for the sole and dis- 
tinct reason that he did not come in the char- 



MEXICAN WAR. 4^ 



acter in wMch they liacl expected Mm to come, 
and in v/liicli alone tliey liad promised and 
were willing to receive liim. 

Tlie probabilities of tlie case afford also a 
strong presumption that tlie conduct of Mex- 
ico was entirely consistent. 'No one under- 
standing the Mexican character, had he been 
asked at the time if that government would 
receive a minister from the United States, 
thereby abandoning openly the position which 
it had taken a few months before, and con- 
fessing that its complaints were groundless, 
and that its conduct had been ridiculous, would 
have hesitated to answer no. Our government 
itself must have been surprised at the readi- 
ness with which they imagined Mexico to have 
yielded her high pretensions, and to have for- 
gotten her ancient pride. Had this been the 
case, there would have been in it an inconsist- 
ency indeed. 

Now the language used by that government 
is incapable of any other fair construction 
than the one which it was intended to bear. 
The term " commissioner" is never applied to 
a resident minister. The answer evidently 
contemplated that the mission would be con- 



42 REVIEW OF THE 

fined to a single object ; tlie powers of resi- 
dent ministers are always general. It w^ould 
seem, tliat without the use of a negative, lan- 
guage could not more distinctly express tlie 
meaning for wliicli Mexico contended. 

Tlie parties fell into a mutual mistake. Mex- 
ico understood " all the questions in dispute" 
to arise from the annexation. This difficulty 
engrossed her whole attention, and it never 
occurred to her that there was any other ; as 
indeed there was no other unadjusted question 
which a minister v/as competent to settle. She 
naturally supposed that it Vv^as the desire of 
the United States to restore friendly inter- 
course in the manner universal aniono^ nations. 
This government on the other hand seemed to 
imagine that Mexico only desired that the min- 
ister who might come to reside at her capital 
should possess full powers to settle the present 
dispute. The known disposition and previous 
conduct of Mexico certainly furnished a pre- 
sumption that she w^ould consent to no such 
concession. How our government could gath- 
er anything from her re-plj to rebut this pre- 
sumption we cannot understand; we will as- 
sume, however, that it really expected the min- 



MEXICAN WAR. 43. 



ister would be received, because to suppose 
the contrary Y/ould be to suppose it to have 
acted in bad faith. 

But tliis mutual error was soon to be ex- 
plained. Mexico found that the United States 
had sent a minister to her capital, expecting 
that he would be received, and the latter dis- 
covered that Mexico had intended no such 
submission whatever. What vras then the du- 
ty of the United States ? A grave question 
was presented to our government ; the mighty 
results of peace or war might hang on its de- 
cision. We think that the United States 
should have sent a commissioner, as Mexico 
desired. We rest this opinion on two grounds. 
It w^ould have been a just and conciliating po- 
licy, and it would in all probability have se- 
cured a peace. 

In the annexation of Texas, we had been 
the gainers at the expense of Mexico. How- 
ever acquired, the fact was that we came to 
possess a vast territory which once belonged 
to her. Her pride was wounded, and her jeal- 
ousy was aroused. Her government saw that 
it was useless to contend against the act, and 
its only object was to yield its high preten- 



44 REVIEW OF THE 



sions in siicli a manner as to preserve its self- 
respect, and to calm tlie clamor of the people. 

Now under these circumstances it would 
surely liave been wise and just in tlie United 
States to have exercised toward that republic 
a spiiit of kindness and generosity, to have 
borne with her pride, and to have taken some 
pains to soothe her irritation and to dispel her 
jealousy. The existing boundary question af- 
forded an opportunity for that conciliating 
course w^hich justice required fi'om us, and 
which would gratify the feelings of Mexico. 

Had that been adjusted by a commissioner, 
had a comparatively small sum been paid to 
Mexico for that undetermined extent of territo- 
ry which she might be supposed to surrender 
and had she been treated with the forbearance 
due from a great nation toward a feebler one 
on which it was CDcroaching, how easily might 
the causes of difficulty have been dissipated, 
and all resentments brushed away. 

Our government indeed could hardly have 
adopted a course better calculated than the one 
which it did adopt, to deepen in the minds of the 
Mexican people its sense of injury, and its feel- 
ing of hostility. Mexico was first charged 



MEXICAN WAR 45 



with having violated Iier word, and she was 
next informed that the alternative was be- 
fore her, immediately to abandon her position 
and renew her diplomatic intercourse with 
the United States, or to suffer the consequen- 
ces. Now consenting to the demand of Mexi- 
co would have been so perfectly in accordance 
with the usages of nations, it was so peculiarly 
proper for us to adopt a conciliatory course 
toward her at that time, and the unhappy 
consequences of this haughty and imperious 
conduct were so apparent, that we are driven 
to the conclusion that a sincere desire for peace 
and a renewal of friendship, and an anxiety to 
show to Mexico that we intended her no inju- 
ry, were not in the mind of our government ; 
but that it was impelled rather by that pride 
of power which generally accompanies wrong, 
and which can tolerate nothing but submis- 
sion. 

In a few days after the refusal to receive our 
minister, the administration of Herrera, who 
only a year before had been elected with une- 
qualled unanimity, yielded to the opposition 
which had been excited against it, and by the 
act of the army the supreme power passed 



46 REVIEW OF THE 



without Lloodslied or tumult into the hands 
of Paredes. 

In the latter part of January Mr. Slidell was 
directed to apply to the new government for 
reception. As it might have been expected, 
Paredes declined recei^dng him on the same 
ground on which his predecessor had based his 
refusal. 

There ca^n be no reasonable doubt that the 
administration of Herrera, and probably that 
of Paredes also, would have received a com- 
missioner to settle the dispute relating to Tex- 
as. Had a commissioner been sent and receiv- 
ed, it is probable that peace and harmony 
w^ould have been established. Now we sub- 
mit, that if it appears probable that the war 
would, have been prevented by any just and 
proper act on the part of the United States 
which that government refused to perform, it 
must share at least the responsibility of the 
war, by whichever party it might actually have 
been commenced. 

"We shall not examine the question, whether 
the administration of Paredes, the attempt at 
negotiation having been thus broken off, would 
have proceeded to acts of hostility against the 



MEXICAN WAR. 47 



United States on account of tlie annexation of 
Texas. Tliis at best would be only an exam- 
ination of probabilities, wliicli could not lead 
to a satisfactory conclusion, nor be of any prac- 
tical consequence. Our own opinion is, that 
it would not. We entertain but little doubt 
that, as the popular commotion was taken ad- 
vantage of by Paredes for his own personal 
elevation, so he would have been glad to avoid 
a collision with the United States, VN^hich w^ould 
endanger its security. Many hold a contrary 
opinion. As Mexico was allov»^ed no opportu- 
nity to solve this doubt, the question must re- 
main as uncertain as it is immaterial. 



48 KEVIEW OF THE 



CHAPTER V, 



The fidvance of our Army to the Rio Grande. This movement a viola- 
tion of the rights of Mexico, which had been recognized by our Gov- 
ernment itself. 

We liave now establisliecl the fact, that war 
was not the necessary consequence of annexa- 
tion. We have seen that beyond a reasonable 
doubt, notwithstanding the braggadocio and 
haughty language of Mexico, all matters of 
dispute and difficulty between that country 
and our own might have been settled by nego- 
tiation, had the United States really desired to 
preserve harmony and peace. 

We now pass to the consideration of an event 
on which, and on which alone, the responsibil- 
ity of the Mexican vrar must forever rest. By 
refusing to negotiate in the manner that Mex- 
ico desired, we had estopped ourselves from 
ever asserting that such a negotiation would 
have been unsuccessful. We could not con- 



MEXICAN WAR. 49 



tend that it was impossible for a treaty to have 
been made, for we had refused to treat. As 
against iis, the presumption is warranted that 
peace could have been ]3reserved by honora- 
ble negotiation. And novv^, by the act wdiich 
T/e ai'e about to examine, we in like manner 
deprived ourselves of any right to assert, that 
even after negotiations were ])roken off, vrar 
might have been commenced by Mexico. 

On the 18th of January, 1846, General 
Taylor was ordered to "advance from Corpus 
Christi as early as the season would permit, 
and occupy a position on or near the Eio 
Grande." We shall devote a considerable 
space to the examination of this act of our 
government, because it was the most impor- 
tant event in the history of the war, and no 
one can be competent to form any opinion con- 
cerning the causes of that unhappy contest, 
wdthout full}^ understanding it, 

Burke, in his reflections on the French rev- 
olution, says : "We have consecrated the state, 
that no man should approach to look into its 
defects but with due caution ; that he should 
approach to the faults of the state as to the 
wounds of a father, w ith pious aw^e and tremb- 



50 REVIEW OF THE 



ling solicitude." This caution we have endeav- 
ored to exercise, and snch awe and solicitude 
v/e trust our patriotism inspires ; but we are 
unable to resist the conviction that this ad- 
vance was an intentional and deliberate act of 
war on the part of oui* government. 

By a law passed immediately after her inde- 
pendence, Texas declared her western bound- 
ary to be the Rio Grande, from its mouth to 
its source. Mexico, on the contrary, claimed 
that portions of Nevv-Mexico, Chihuahua, Coa- 
huihi and Tamaulipas, departments of her own 
territory, lay east of this pretended boundary, 
and. formed no part .of the state of Texas. 

Our government on several occasions recog- 
nized this claim of Mexico as entitled to its 
respect. Our secretary of state in 1844, in 
stating to Mexico the policy of this country, 
says, that "the president desires to settle the 
question of boundary on the most liberal and 
satisfactory terms." When, nearly a year after, 
congress consented to the annexation, they did 
so on the express condition that the territory 
should be "subject to the adjustment by this 
government of all questions of boundary that 
may arise with other governments." 



MEXICAN WAR. 5X 



But after all this, and while the question 
stood in precisely the same situation, our ex- 
ecutive assumes the claim of Mexico to be 
unfounded, sends its army to the utmost limit 
of its pretensions, where it blockades the har- 
bor of Point Isabel, and the mouth of the 
Rio Grande, and plants its cannon, " ^^dthin 
good range for demolishing " the peaceful town 
of Matamoros ; and writes to General Taylor 
that the attempt by Mexico to cross the Rio 
Grande w4th a considei-able force would be re- 
garded as an invasion of the United States 
and the commencement of hostilities. 

On the mere statement of these facts the 
United States must stand convicted of the un- 
just act of treating with violent disregard a 
claim, v>^hich they had acknowledged it their 
duty to respect, and which w^as made by a na- 
tion with whom they were at peace, and whom 
it w^as, under the circumstances, peculiarly their 
duty to conciliate. 



• 

52 REVIEW OF THE 



CIIAPTEE VI. 



The alvancp to thn Rio Or.mrle an invasion of the torritory of Mexico. 
L)ui:*!aua \Xi reder! to ih V>y France in 1303 cxteiHied tio farther west 
th-riij to the Nui^c-.ij. Tlii* nv«i- the Wi'Stern bou;i<l:ii-y of the Spahish 
province of Ti'X 13 prioc to 1 i20. The same river the boundary of 
tiie -\L'xicaii i^Vi-o of Texa^. Texar* xvfter her independence never in 
any legal manner enlarged her territ(»ry. The strip of conntry in ques- 
tio.i ill tue exchnive po-sspssion ot Mexico in 1846. Government 
aware at tlip time the order fur the advance was k^sued that it would 
be aa invasion. 

The advance of our army was not only a 
disregard of an unadjusted claim wliicli it was 
our duty to respect, it w^as an invasion of the 
territory of Mexico. The claim of Mexico to 
the left bank of the Eio Grande was well found- 
ed, and there existed not a shadow of title on 
y/hich Texas could rest her pretension to it. 
It formed no part of the state of Texas, but 
was and always had been in the peaceable pos- 
session of Mexico, and under the jurisdiction 
of her law^s. 

It has been contended that the boundary 



MEXICAN WAR. 53 



whicli se23aratecl ancient Louisiana from New- 
Mexico and New Spain, formed tlie true west- 
ern limit of Texas. The latter provinces w^ere 
the original possessions of Spain. Lonisiana 
was a j)rovince of France. In 1803 France 
ceded tlie province of Louisiana to the United 
States. It became important afterward to set- 
tle the boundary between the territory thus 
ceded and the Spanish possessions. By the 
treaty of 1819, the Sabine river was deter- 
mined to be that boundary. The United States 
had derived frc^m France an mideiined claim 
to territory west of that river, but it was sur- 
rendered to Spain as a part of the considera- 
tion for the cession of Florida. 

It was nov/ contended that by this treaty of 
1819 the United States had surrendered to 
Spain the entire territory from the Sabine to 
the Rio Grande, to all wdiich she had received 
an unquestionable title from France, and that 
Texas embraced the identical and entire coun- 
try thus surrendered ; and consequently that, 
Texas being annexed, Mexico had no shadov/ 
of reason for disputing our authority quite to 
the Rio Grande. 

Now we could derive from France no title 



54 REVIEW OF THE 



to territory wliicli France did not herself pos- 
sess. Before we proceed further we will show 
by historical testimony that France possessed 
no title at any time to the region west of the 
Nueces. 

Discovery vests in a nation the title to un- 
inhabited territory. Title thus acquired^ is 
however imperfect, and may be lost, unless 
within a reasonable time it is followed by oc- 
cupation, or at least by an attempt at occupa- 
tion. For it would be unjust and discouraging 
to enterprise if a nation, having discovered a 
new country which through feebleness or other 
cause it is unaT)le to occupy, should have a 
right to forbid its settlement. Accordingly if 
any newly discovered country remains for many 
years unoccupied, the title may pass from the 
discoverers, and vest in a nation which shall 
have settled the country, cultivated the soil, 
and opened a new home for mankind. 

Louisiana itself may be cited as an illustra- 
tion of this law. In 1583, Hernando de Soto, 
a Spanish cavalier, searching through the track- 
less forests of the south for golden mines and 
the fountain of perpetual youth, first discov- 
ered the Mississippi near the mou,th of the Ar- 



MEXICAN WAR. 55 



kansas ; and a part of Lis adventurous band, 
after liis deatli, descended that river to tlie 
gulf, and penetrated to the waters of Mexico. 
In tliat age of romantic visions, Spanish ad- 
venturers cared not to seek the valley so full 
of disaster to its discoverer, nor the river be- 
neath whose waters he found his g-i-ave ; and 
France, by her settlement one hundred years 
aftervrard, acquired a title to Louisiana v,diich 
Spain could not successfully dispute. 

By these principles let us examine the case 
before us. France contended that the Rio 
Grande formed the Vv^estern boundary of her 
possessions, while Spain as strenuously insisted 
that her sovereignty extended east to the Sa- 
bine. Historical evidence seems to point out 
the proper boundary l)etween the French and 
Spanish provinces to have been the range of 
mountains which forms the southern part of 
the great Rocky mountain chain, in Trhich the 
Red, Arkansas and Colorado rivers have their 
rise and which forms the western wall of the 
Mississippi valley, together vvith the desert 
prairies east of the Nueces, and extending about 
two hundred miles from the termination of this 
range to the Gulf. 



56 |{EVIEW OF THE 



The claim of France rested cliiefly on the 
expeditions of La Salle, the grant of Lonis 
XTV. to Crozat, the map of De Lisle, and a 
few other map>s and descriptions derived from 
these. They were all extremely indefinite, and 
nearly as inaccnrate as were descriptions of Cen- 
tral Africa, before the explorations of Park, 
Denham, Clapperton, Caille and the Landers. 
Thus the map of De Lisle included in Louisi- 
ana all the country between ]^ew-York and 
Pennsylvania on the east, and the Eocky moun- 
tains on the v>'est. The grant to Crozat cov- 
ered this vast extent. It was about as valid, 
though not cjuite so extensive in its sweep as 
the bull by which Pope Alexander VI. grant- 
ed to Spain all the heathen countries v\-hich 
she might discover west of the Azores, and to 
Portugal all Asia, Africa and the East Indies. 

In the year 1682, La Salle descended the 
Mississippi from the Illinois river to its mouth. 
He claimed for France all the unknown region 
whose waters flow in that river to the ocean, 
and named it Louisiana after his sovereign. 
Three years after, at his solicitation, the French 
government equipped four vessels to seek the 
mouth of the Mssissippi by sea, and he set out 



MEXICAN WAR. 57 



Upon a new expedition, to establish a great 
colony on tlie fertile shores w^aterecl by that 
river. Sailing, through ignorance of the coast, 
one hnndi'ecl lea2:ues westward of liis clestina- 
tion, he was finally landed in the bay of Me- 
tagorda, and saw^ the ships sail away, leaving 
him with less than a hundred companions in 
that unknown land. The colony melted rap- 
idly away by disease and dissension, and he 
himself, within a few months, leaving the arms 
of France in the forests of Texas, met death 
through private treachery in the land which 
he had discovered for his king. The settle- 
ment was then abandoned, and seven men who 
alone escaped its numerous disasters, wandered 
eastward to the Mississippi, and returned to 
Canada. "These distresses," says the Abbe 
Eaynal, " soon made France lose sight of a re- 
gion, that was then but little known." 

In 1722, Bernard de la Harpe attempted to 
plant a French colony on nearly the same spot, 
which enter]3rize, as Bancroft informs us, " had 
no other result than to incense the natives 
against the French, and to stimulate the Span- 
iards to the occupation of the country by a 
fort." 



58 REVIEW OF THE 



These were tlie only efforts ever made by 
France to colonize Texas. '' Slie was too feeble 
ever after," we are told, " to attempt extend- 
ing lier settlements w^est of the Sabine." The 
act of taking possession of the Mississippi can- 
not be considered as gi^ang to France a title to 
territory lying beyond a chain of mountains, 
in which were its most distant sources. 

Spain made her first settlement east of the 
Eio Grande in l^ew Mexico, about the year 
1594, eighty years befoi-e a French subject 
ever savr the Mississippi, and held it in undis- 
puted possession until the Mexican revolution. 
All geographers have laid down the mountains 
v>^hich divide the valley of the Mississippi from 
that of the Eio Grande as the eastern bounda- 
ry of the Spanish province of New Mexico. 
Above the Passo del Norte, then, discovery 
and unmolested occupancy had given Spain a 
title to the region west of these mountains, 
which no nation ever seriously questioned. 

South of this point, the country east of the 
Eio Grande remained, until within a few years, 
almost an unbroken Vvilderness, where the 
forest dropped its fruit with its leaves to the 
ground, the undisturbed soil vras black with 



MEXICAN WAR. 59 



the mould of ages, and tlie Indian from the 
mountain roamed as wild as liis fathers. 

The Spaniards first crossed the low^er Rio 
Grande in 1G90, iive years after La Salle's un- 
happy expedition. They discovered and took 
possession of the country to the Nueces, which 
no French adventurer is related to have seen, 
and into v/hich, before the Mexican revolution, 
no adverse settler ever wandered. Having 
frustrated La Harpe's attempt in 1722, they 
continued, until the territory came into their 
undisputed j^ossession by the treaty of 1819, 
the only rivals witli the Indians for the sove- 
reignty of the region quite to the Sabine. 
Bexar was founded by them in 1()92. They 
formed a settlement at Nacogdoches, on the 
frontier of their claim, in the early part of the 
last century. Goliad dates its origin in 1716. 

The Abbe Eaynal, the highest French au- 
thority of the reign of Louis XYL, describes 
the country as a part of New Spain, and de- 
signates all the towns and rivers by Spanish 
names, except the bay of Metagorda, where 
La Salle landed. He sa}^^ that the French 
formed no settlements upon the coast, west of 
the Mississippi. 



60 REVIEW OF THE 



The claim of Spain to the Sabine was then 
far from being groundless ; that of France to 
the Kio Grande was entirely without founda- 
tion. There are two reasons, however, why 
the mountain and desert boundary should ]3e 
considered, not in opposition to the rightful 
claims of France, but rather to those of Spain, 
as the proper line of separation between their 
possessions. The discovery of Texas was by 
the French, and they made two attempts to 
settle the country, one the earliest on record, 
which Jefferson forcibly terms " the cradle of 
Louisiana," and which, as Bancroft declares, 
" made the country still more surely a part of 
her territory, because the colony found there 
its grave." 

This is also the most prominent natural 
boundary w^hich the country presents. Eivers 
in all new countries are undesirable dividing 
lines, as settlements are often formed by the 
same parties on both banks indiscriminately. 
Of this the Nueces and Rio Grande are them- 
selves examples. But the mountain and the 
barren plain are great natural obstacles, and 
broad and appropriate objects of separation. 

Mr. Adams, speaking not as the advocate, 



MEXICAN WAR. (j| 



but as the historian, says of tlie claim of 
France : " It was no right. It was a claim of 
all the territory to the Eio Grande, v/hen in 
fact there never had been an adjustment of 
that claim with another, and much better au- 
thenticated claim of Spain." He stated that 
President Monroe, during wdiose administra- 
tion the subject was most discussed, had no 
confidence in tlie claim to the Rio Grande. 
Mr. Benton, in his elocjuent language says: 
"The magnificent valley of the Mississippi is 
ours, wifli all its fountains, springs and floods." 
And again : " The Kio del Norte is a Mexican 
river by position and possession." I^ow in view 
of historical testimony so unanswerable and 
authority so high as this, of what consequence 
is it, that the French officer who surrendered 
Louisiana to the United States in 1803, in- 
formed the agents of our government that that 
province extended to the Eio Grande, or that 
Mr. JeHerson and other eminent men at the 
same time declared, even in the strongest 
terms, their conviction that our newly acquir- 
ed territory was bounded by that river ? Of 
what consequence is it, that Mr. Clay, attack- 
ing in the house of representatives the treaty of 



• 

g2 REVIEW OK THE 



1819, declared tlie country to the Eio Grande 
to have been thrown away by that instrument, 
or that the executive who dechii'ed our title 
to fifty-four degrees forty minutes in Oregon 
to be clear and unquestionable, contended for 
the same extreme boundary ? How can the 
claims put forth by Mr, Adams in his corres- 
pondence v/ith the Spanish minister in 1819, 
when it was, as he declares, liis duty to 'make 
the best case that he could for his ovrn coun- 
try, be opposed for a moment to his subse- 
quent and opposite declaration which we have 
quoted ? The claim of Texas to the left bank 
of that river, then, so far as it has been found- 
ed on the title of France, falls to the ground. 
It folio vvs also that the president is mistaken, 
when, in his message of December, 1846, he 
says, that '' the country which was ceded to 
Spain by the treaty of 1819, embraced all the 
country now claimed by the state of Texas^ 
between the Nueces and the Rio Grande." It 
clearly embraced no part of this territory 
whatever. 

We shall now proceed to show that before 
the Mexican revolution the Nueces was the 
farthest western boundary that was ever as- 



MEXICAN WAR. ^3 



signed to tlie Spanisli province of Texas ; for 
Spain erected tlie country from tlie Nueces to 
tlie Sa]}ine into a province under this name in 
tlie latter piirt of the seventeenth century, and 
as it will be renieinLei-ed, always maintained 
its exclusive possession, as well before as after 
the Sabine became her established boundary 
by the treaty of 1819. 

Pinkerton wrote in 1802, and is the first 
English geographer of his time. His atlas 
marks the limits of Texas very distinctly. 
Its v\^estern boundary foUovv^s up the Nueces a 
short distance, until that river inclines to the 
west, and then leaving it strikes further east, 
crossing the San Antonio and Colorado. 

Humboldt, the prince of geographers and 
travelers, spent several years in exploring 
Spanish America. He prepared in the royal 
school of Mines in Mexico, a map of that 
country, compiled from the best authorities in 
Europe and America, corrected from his own 
personal observation. In this map, published 
in Paris in 1808, the Nueces is described to be 
the western boundary of the province of Tex- 
as. Harrison, Black, Le Sage and Malte Brun, 
the most standard geographers since the day 



64 REVIEW OF THE 



of Humboldt, agree in giving tlie same west- 
ern boundary to Texas. 

Lieutenant Pike was sent out by President 
Jefferson in 180G-'07, to explore the liead wsl- 
ters of the Arkansas. On his return, he was 
conducted by the Spanish authorities through 
'New Mexico, Chihuahua and Texas. The map 
attached to his journal of his expedition is re- 
garded as the best American authorit}^ of that 
day. On this map the western boundary of 
Texas is distinctly marked, somewhat east of 
the Nueces. All the maps of that period rep- 
resent the intendencies of Nuevo S:in Tander 
and Coahuila extendiii^^ eujiv. aivi to iLl- Nuq- 
ces, and Texas embracing all the region be- 
tween that river, or the desert east of it, and 
the Sabine. 

And now, finally, the Nueces v/as the Vv'estern 
boundary of the state of Texas under theZ\Iexi- 
can constitution of 1824. Senator Niles, in his 
work on that country, says : '' The river Nueces 
has heretofore been considered as the western 
boundary of Texas, the district betvv^een this 
and the Pio Grande having been included 
in the state of Tamauiipas, while the farce of a 
federal republic was played off in Mexico," 



MEXICAN WAR. 55 



General Almonte was appointed in 1834 a 
commissioner of tlie Mexican government to 
settle tlie boundary between Texas and Coa- 
huila, pending tlie application of tlie latter to 
be admitted as a separate state. In his official 
report be states, tbat tbe commonly received 
opinion tbat Texas extends to tbe Nueces was 
found to be an error ; tbat tbe true bne com- 
menced at tbe moutb of tbe Aransas, tbe first 
stream east of tbe Nueces, and followed it to 
its source. Tbe legislature of Coabuila and 
Texas, in tbeir legislative acts, subsequently 
adopted tbe same boundary. 

In tbe summer of 1836, President Jackson 
sent Henry M. Morfit to Texas to inquire into 
tbe political condition of tbat country, witb 
reference to tbe acknowledgment of its inde- 
pendence, perbaps also remotely witb a view 
to its annexation. His official letters were 
communicated by tbe president to congress. 
In one of tbese be says : " Tbe political Hm- 
its of Texas, previous to tbe last revolution, 
were tbe Nueces on tbe west," &c. 

Tbe original edition of Tanner's map of 
Texas, compiled by Stepben F. Austin, tbe 
first and most prominent of tbe settlers of tbat 
3 



gQ EEVIEW OF THB 



state, gives the Nueces as its western bounda- 
ry ; thougli in the editions issued since 1836, 
the colored line has been removed to the Rio 
Grande, the engraved line, however, remaining 
on the Nueces. 

From the mass of evidence before us, we 
have presented that of the highest and most 
conclusive authority, to show the historical 
fact, which no one understanding the subject 
now denies, that before the revolution of 1834 
-35, Texas as a Spanish province or as a 
Mexican state had and claimed no title to the 
country between the Nueces and the Rio 
Grande. . 

But it is said, this does not settle the ques- 
tion. The repuUic of Texas held her territory 
by a better title than musty maps or royal 
records can bestow. The country which she 
claims was hers by a declaration of independ- 
ence, and a successful resistance against usur- 
pation, was held by her arms, and conse- 
crated by her blood. Let us see. 

The mouth of the Nueces is distant about 
one hundred and forty miles in a direct line 
from that of the Eio Grande ; but two hun- 
di-ed and fifty miles up the latter river, the dis- 



MEXICAN WAB. 57 



tance between the two is only about sixty 
miles. Of this country, a narrow strip bor- 
dering the Rio Grande, and another still less in 
width skirting the Nueces are alone habitable. 
Between these lies a solitary highland desert 
about one hundred and ten miles in width at 
its southern extremity, and containing salt 
lakes of considerable size. 

At the time of the revolution of 1834-35, 
a few families from Texas had settled at Cor- 
pus Christi on the right bank of the Nueces, 
at its mouth, and in the immediate neighbor- 
hood of that place, which territory had never 
before been inhabited, and this was the far- 
thest western point which her emigrants had 
reached. Every battle in her struggle against 
Mexico was fought east of that river. 

Let us inquii^e how Texas proceeded, after 
her independence, to extend her authority 
across this silent and uninhabited waste. In 
1836 she passed an act, declaring her Western 
boundary to be the Rio Grande from its mouth 
to its source. This harmless arrangement of 
words caused no commotion. It never occurred 
to the eastern half of New Mexico to send 
rep^e§,eiit^tiye$ to her new goveriimeiLt, whose 



53 REVIEW OF THE 



laws never crossed her borders. Her twenty- 
towns and villages east of tlie Kio Grande did 
not dream of renouncing theii' allegiance to 
Mexico. CHliualiua exhibited no sensation, 
tliat a corner at tlie Passo del Norte, famous 
for its wine, liad been rudely severed from her 
state. The inhabitants of Coahuila and Ta- 
maulipas still crossed the great river to culti- 
vate their fields on its eastern bank, ignorant of 
any lawgiver except the government of Mexico. 
The Mexican collector in the latter department 
received his duties and his fees in undisturbed 
security until the very day, when burning their 
custom house, the authorities fled from Point 
Isabel at the approach of General Taylor. 

Mr. Morfit, in the correspondence above al- 
luded to, says: "The additional territory 
claimed by Texas since her independence, will 
increase her population at least fifteen thou- 
sand." The coolness with w^hich Texas thus 
attempted to transfer to herself this "vast 
slice of the territory of Mexico," twelve hun- 
dred miles in length, and containing a popula- 
tion of at least fifteen thousand souls, is truly 
very laughable. " It was the intention of this 
government," wiites Mr. Morfit, " to have claim- 



MEXICAN WAR. 69 



ed along tlie Eio Grande to the thirtietli de- 
gree of latitude, and thence due west to the 
Pacific." Some inconvenience was apprehend- 
ed, however, and " it was thought the territory 
claimed would be sufficient for a young repub- 
lic." How modest was this political child, who 
knew no limit to her rights, except such as her 
own sovereign discretion should determine. 

Judge Ellis, the president of the convention 
that formed the constitution of Texas, and a 
member of the congress which adopted the 
above mentioned boundary, said, on a subse- 
quent occasion, that the only object of Texas 
in this proceeding was to secure a wide margin 
in her future negotiations with Mexico. 

But it is idle to say that a government can 
by resolution acquire title to the territory of 
another. There are only two ways in which 
such title can be acquired, and these are treaty, 
and conquest followed by possession. Santa 
Anna, president of Mexico, was taken prisoner 
by the Texans in the battle of San Jacinto. 
Before his liberation he entered into a treaty 
with Texas, by which the territory from the Nu- 
eces to the Kio Grande was ceded to that state. 
Now every one knows that such a treaty waa 



70 REVIEW OF THE 



only waste paper until it should be ratified by 
the proper authority. Texas admitted this fact 
by stipulating as the condition of his liberty, 
that Santa Anna should procure the ratifica- 
tion of the treaty by the Mexican congress. 
The Mexican congress however instantly repu- 
diated the whole transaction, and this is the 
only treaty with Mexico of which Texas can 
boast. In 1839, a small marauding party of 
Texans crossed the Eio Grande, and signalized 
themselves by a masterly retreat before the 
pursuing Mexicans. In 1 8 4 1 , President Lamar 
sent three commissioners, with a strong civil 
force, to bring under Texan authority the east- 
ern half of New Mexico. These were treated 
as invaders, captured to a man, and marched off 
to the mines. The world heard with horror 
of their sufferings, and of the barbarity of 
their captors. In 1842, General Somerville, 
having pursued the Mexican force as far as Sal- 
tillo, ordered a retreat. Between five and six 
hundred men refused to obey him, elected a 
new leader, and set off down the Kio Grande 
to Mier. They obtained possession of that 
place in the night, but the next day they were 
all captured by Ampudia, and sent as pris- 



MEXICAN WAR. 7| 



oners to the interior of Mexico, where some 
were immured in the dungeons of Perote, and 
some were driven with common felons to pave 
the streets of the capital. And these are the 
only attemjDts ever made by Texas to bring 
under her authority " the additional territory " 
which she had resolved into her possession. 

All this country was included on 23aper in 
the western congressional district of Texas, 
but its representatives sat in the Mexican con- 
gress. She organized counties extending to 
the Rio Grande on paper, but their inhabi- 
tants who acknowledged her authority lived at 
Corpus Christi and in its immediate neighbor- 
hood, and beyond this point no judicial pro- 
cess from her courts was ever attempted to be 
served. 

On the other hand, the inhabitants of this 
" additional territory claimed by Texas " were 
all Mexicans, and over it the Mexican authority 
had never been for a moment interrupted. 
That government had a custom house at Point 
Isabel at its southern extremity, and another 
at Taos on its northern limit. Only three 
days after the resolution consenting to the an- 
nexation had been adopted, congress passed a 



72 REVIEW OF THE 



law alloTvdng a drawback on goods imported 
into tliis country, and carried overland vkt St. 
Louis to the Mexican city of Santa Fe, where 
the United States had then a consul recog- 
nized by the Mexican government. 

Truth is always consistent, but wrong be- 
trays itself by contradiction. A very good il- 
lustration of this principle was pointed out by 
a question asked in congress of one of the rep- 
resentatives from Texas, by what right General 
Kearney had established a territorial govern- 
ment in New Mexico within the limits of his 
congressional district, and how his constituents 
there dared to resist the authority of the Uni- 
ted States. This w^as after the order had been 
given to that officer to march "to the conquest 
of New Mexico," and the president had con- 
gratulated congress upon the acquisition of 
that country, announcing that "the i^rovince of 
New Mexico, with its capital Santa Fe, has 
been captured without bloodshed." 

An officer writing from the camp opposite 
Matamoros says: "Our situation here is a 
most extraordinary one. Eight in the ene- 
my's country, actually occujDying their cotton 
and corn fields, the people of the soil leaving 



MEXICAN WAR, 73 



tlieir homes, and we with a small handful of 
men marching with colors flying and drums 
beating under the very guns of one of their 
principal cities, while they with an army of 
twice our size at least make not the least re- 
sistance, not the first effort to drive the inva- 
ders off." Speaking of the inhabitants, the 
same writer says : " These people are all Span- 
iards, and are actuated by a feeling of univer- 
sal hostility against the United States ; and 
since our arrival nearly all of them have left 
this side of the river, and gone over, leaving 
their houses and much valuable property, 
notwithstanding every assurance from General 
Taylor that all their rights and property would 
be respected by our government. They quar- 
rel among themselves, but against a foreign foe 
they are united." General Le Vega said to 
General Worth, in an interview held at Mata- 
moros on the day of the arrival of our army 
opposite that place : " Our people are grieved 
to see the flag of the United States floating on 
the left bank of that river. There is the 
home of our people, there is our custom house, 
there are our towns and hamlets, and there 
stand the whitening harvests of pur citizens, 



74 REVIEW OF THE 



and we regard your presence tliere as an act of 
unjustifiable invasion." 

And against all this, Texas lias on whicli to 
found her claim, neither a treaty, nor conquest, 
nor a moment's occupation of any part of the 
territory, nor the exercise of a single act of 
sovereignty over it; nothing except the reso- 
lution of her own congress, which body, had 
they thought it expedient, could easily have 
obtained the same title to the entire globe. 

When in 1842, Mr. Webster, as secretary of 
state, in vindicating the independence of Tex- 
as, says, " no hostile foot finding rest within 
her territory for six or seven years," he could 
not have intended to include in the term "her 
territory," a country inhabited exclusively by 
Mexicans, governed by Mexican laws and on 
entering which, our merchants paid duties to 
Mexican collectors. He plainly designed by 
his broad and unqualified expression, to ex- 
clude this " additional territory " from conside- 
ration, or rather esteemed the claim of Texas 
undeserving of notice. 

Mr. Benton, in a speech against the ratifica- 
tion of the treaty of annexation, delivered in 
the senate in 1844, says : " I wash my hands 



MEXICAN WAR. 75 



of all attempts to dismember tlie Mexican re- 
public by seizing ber dominions in New Mexi- 
co, Cbibuahua, Coabuila and Tamaulipas. The 
treaty, in all that relates to tbe boundary of 
the Eio Grande, is an act of unparalleled out- 
rage on Mexico. By this declaration the thir- 
ty thousand Mexicans on the left bank of the 
valley of the Rio del Norte are our citizens, 
and standing, in the language of the presi- 
dent's message, " in a hostile attitude to us, and 
subject to be treated as invaders." Taos, the 
seat of the custom house, where our caravans 
enter their goods is ours ; Santa Fe, the capital 
of New Mexico, is ours ; Governor Armijo is 
our governor, and subject to be tried for trea- 
son if he does not submit to us ; twenty Mexi- 
can towns and villages are ours, and their peace- 
ful inhabitants, cultivating their fields and 
tending their flocks, are suddenly converted 
by a stroke of the president's pen into Ameri- 
can citizens, or American rebels." 

Governor Wright, of New- York, was then in 
the senate, and voted against the treaty. In a 
speech delivered the next autumn he said : " I 
believe that the treaty, from the boundaries 
that must be implied from it, embraced a coun- 



76 EEVIEW OF THB 

try to whicli Texas liad no claim, over wliicli 
slie had never acquired jurisdiction, and wMcL. 
site liad no riglit to cede." 

Mr. C. J. Ingersoll said in tlie liouse of rep- 
resentatives : " The territorial limits of Texas 
are marked in the configm^ation of this conti- 
nent by an Almighty hand. The stuj^endous 
deserts between the ISTueces and the Rio 
Grande are the natural boundary of the Anglo- 
Saxon and Mauritanian races. There ends the 
valley of the vrest; there Mexico begins. 
While peace is cherished, that boundary will 
be sacred. Not till the spirit of conquest ra- 
ges, will the people on either side molest or 
mix with each other." 

We have now seen that the French province 
of Louisiana never extended west of the Nue- 
ces ; that the Spanish province of Texas lay 
entirely east of this boundary ; that the same 
river was the farthest western limit of the 
Mexican state of Texas ; that the authority of 
the republic of Texas never extended beyond 
the valley of the Nueces ; and that New Mex- 
ico and the eastern bank of the lower Eio 
Grande had always been, and was at the ad- 
vance of our army, inhabited by the Mexican 



MEXICAN WAR. 77 



people, and under undisputed Mexican jurisdic- 
tion. 

Our position is tlius established, that the 
march of our army to that river, was an in- 
vasion of the territory of Mexico. 

The same evidence also establishes another 
fact. The eastern half of New Mexico, and 
the country between the desert and the lower 
Rio Grande we are now able to say are not the 
property of the state of Texas. They were 
obtained by the treaty of 1848, and belong to 
the United States. Texas cannot carry into 
this territory her laws and her slavery. It is 
a part of the free territory of the union. Her 
claim is the height of insolence, and should not 
be allowed. 

But, moreover, the order directing this ad- 
vance was issued by our government with the 
full knowledge that its obedience would be 
such a hostile invasion, and an act of aggres- 
sive war against Mexico. 

Possessing every means of information, we 
have a right to require and to presume in gov- 
ernment full knowledge on such a subject. 
The plea of ignorance could be no extenuation 
of the wrong, though it would call forth our de- 



• 
78 REVIEW OF THE 



rision. To have taken sucli a step ignorantly, 
would have been scarcely less culjDable than to 
have taken it for the deliberate pui'pose of pro- 
voking war. 

But it was not taken ignorantly. Apart 
from the conclusive presumption to that effect, 
we have positive evidence that government 
acted with full knowledge of the rights of 
Mexico. 

Major Donelson, our charge d'affairs to 
Texas, informed this government officially in 
1845, that Corpus Christi was the most west- 
ern point occupied by that state. Our mer- 
chants paid duties to Mexico at Point Isabel. 
The order to General Taylor for his advance 
directed that the posts and citizens of Mexico 
east of the Eio Grande should not be molest- 
ed. But besides these, there is one remarka- 
ble fact by which the whole question is put at 
rest. In October, 1845, only three months 
previous to the date of the order to General 
Taylor, Mr. Slidell was instructed by the exec- 
utive of the United States, to offer to Mexico 
five millions of dollars for this identical strip 
of territory east of the Eio Grande. 

Now, in view of these facts, the iftiad can 



MEXICAN WAR. 79 



arrive at only one conclusion ; that the march 
of our army to the Eio Grande was a delibe- 
rate and intentional act of war against Mexico. 



80 REVIEW OF THE 



CHAPTER VII 



The Invasion of Mexico the solo cause of the War. To^e of the Mexi- 
can Minister. Projl maiin i of Mn'jia. Progress of General Tay- 
lor. Order of Paredf's. His Proclamation. Letter of Ampudia. 
Arista gives notice that he shall prosecute hostilities. 

We have now advanced far enough in our 
investigation to see clearly that the march 
to the Rio Grande was an act in direct viola- 
tion of the rights of Mexico ; that it was not 
only a violent disregard of her claims which 
we had recognized as entitled to our respect, 
but was an invasion of her territory, and that 
too committed with the full knowledge of its 
hostile character. 

We shall in the present chapter show that 
this invasion was the sole cause of the hostili- 
ties in which we became engaged. We shall 
then have established the truth of our position 
that on this act of our government, and on 
this alone, the responsibility of the war must 
forever rest. 



MEXICAN WAR. gl 



In pursuance of his orders, General Taylor 
broke up Ms camp on the eleventli of March, 
1846, and commenced his advance. Paredes 
had then been nearly two months and a half in 
power, and had as yet evinced no hostile dis- 
position. On the 12th of March, the day- 
after our army began its movement, the Mexi- 
can minister writes to Mr. Slidell that " the 
position of Mexico is one of defence." In this 
communication her determination is distinctly 
set forth to refrain from the commencement of 
hostilities, and to hold herself open for what 
she conceived to be honorable negotiation. 

On the same day General Mejia, w^ho com- 
manded the forces of the department of Ta- 
maulipas, made a proclamation, declaring that 
the limits of Texas were certain and recogniz- 
ed, and had never extended beyond the Nue- 
ces, and that the American army was then ad- 
vancing to take possession of a large j)art of 
Tamaulipas. On the 19th, approaching the 
river San Colorado, the boundary of the set- 
tled portion of that department, General Taylor 
was met by a party of rancheros, who informed 
him that they were instructed to oppose his 
passage, and that if he crossed that river, the 



82 EBVIEW OF THB 



act would be considered a declaration of war. 
This was tlie first evidence of hostility that 
lie had met y/ith. 

Before his column reached Point Isabel, he 
was met by a civil deputation from Mata- 
moros, which delivered to him a formal pro- 
test from the prefect of the northern district 
of Tamaulipas against his occupation of the 
country. The Mexican authorities setting fire 
to their public buildings, fled from Point 
Isabel at his approach, while our fleet blocka- 
ded its harbor, and the 28th of March saw our 
army arrived at the Kio Grande. On a bluff 
which rises from the river opposite Matamoros, 
and commanding that town, General Taylor 
pitched his fortified camp, which afterwards, 
in memory of its brave defender, received the 
name of Fort Brown. 

In the conference between Generals Worth 
and Le Vega, above alluded to, the latter stated 
that Mexico had not declared war against the 
United States, and that the two countries were 
still at peace ; but added, that the march of 
the American troops through a large part of the 
Mexican territory was an act of war. On the 
4th of April, President Paredes issued an order 



MEXICAN WAR. g^ 



to the Mexican commander at Matamoros, to 
attack our army '' by every means tliat war 
permits." It has been said that this order was 
issued before the news of the advance of our 
forces had reached the city of Mexico, and in 
accordance with a predetermination of Paredes 
to wage war for the recovery of Texas, 

Let us look at the facts. Nineteen days had 
elapsed since, on the 15th of March, scouting 
parties had been seen by General Taylor, sent 
out evidently, as he says, for the purpose of as- 
certaining his movements. The distance from 
Matamoros to Mexico is but a trifle over five 
hundred miles. The news of an invasion would 
probably travel not less than thirty miles in a 
day, at which speed the distance could be ac- 
complished in nineteen days and less. Un- 
doubtedly it flew a hundred miles a day at 
least. Paredes must then on the 4th have been 
informed of the advance of General Taylor. 

On the 23d of the same month, Paredes 
made a proclamation to the people of Mexico, 
which, taken in connection with the attendant 
circumstances, must be considered as showing 
conclusively the motives which led to the order 
of the 4th, the only one which had been is- 



g4 REVIEW OF THE 



sued by liim. In tliis proclamation lie says : 
" I solemnly announce, tliat I do not declare 
war against tlie United States of America, be- 
cause that power pertains to tlie august con- 
gress of tbe nation. But tlie defence of tlie 
Mexican territory, wliicli tlie United States 
troops liave invaded^ is an urgent necessity, 
and my responsibility would be immense before 
tlie country, did I not give command to repel 
tbese forces, wliicli act like enemies. I have so 
commanded." 

On the 6th of April, General Taylor wrote 
to the adjutant general as follows : " On our 
side a battery for four eighteen pounders will 
be completed, and the guns placed in battery 
to-day. These guns bear directly upon the 
public square of Matamoros, and are wdthin 
good range for demolishing the towai." On 
the 13th, Ampudia, the general commanding 
at Matamoros wrote to General Taylor, order- 
ing him to break up his camp, and retire be- 
yond the Nueces, to leave the soil of the de- 
partment of Tamaulipas " while our govern- 
ments are negotiating the pending question in 
relation to Texas," and declaring that his re- 
maining on the soil of Mexico must be consid* 



MEXICAN WAR. 35 



ered an act of aggressive war. To tliis lie 
adds : " If you insist in remaining wdtliin tlie 
territory of Mexico, it will clearly result that 
arms, and arms alone, must decide tlie ques- 
tion." On tlie receipt of tliis communication, 
General Taylor issued orders to our naval com- 
mander at Brazos Santiago, to blockade tlie 
moutli of tlie Rio Grande, for the purpose of 
cutting off tlie supplies and trade of Matamo- 
ros. 

And not until eighteen days after this new 
outrage, on the 24th of April, General Arista, 
who had taken command of the Mexican army, 
gives notice to our commander that he consid- 
ered hostilities commenced and should prose- 
cute them. 

We have thus seen our army ordered to ad- 
vance one hundred and forty miles heyond the 
spot which government was officially informed 
to be the most western point occupied by Tex- 
as, to cross that silent solitude of sand, the 
boundary of the Mississippi valley, and of the 
Anglo-Saxon race, and to enter a territory in- 
habited by citizens of Mexico and governed by 
her laws. We have seen the army take forci- 
ble possession of that country, against the pro- 



g5 REVIEW OF [THE 



tests of its autliorities and its citizens. We 
have seen tlie inhabitants flying before our 
forces, two harbors blockaded by our vessels, 
and one of the principal tov/ns of northern 
Mexico invested by our batteries. 

On the other hand, there is not a single fact 
which tends to warrant any other supposition, 
than that the advance of our army to the Kio 
Grande, and its continuance on the soil of Mex- 
ico, was the sole cause, as it was certainly a suf- 
ficient cause of the hostilities which it begun. 
Then on that movement must rest its entire 
responsibility. 



MEXICAN WAR. 87 



CHAPTER VIII 



The Object of this movement of our Army. The reason given by the 
Executive not the real motive, as proved by the circnmstancfs of the 
case, and by the dispatches to Mr. Slideli. The provocations urged 
by our government considered. The war designed to be brought 
about in such a manner as to throw on Mexico the odium of its com- 
mencement. 

It is natural to seek tlie reason for a measure 
exhibitinsr in tlie executive of tlie United States 
such an unconstitutional assumption of power, 
such a disregard of the acknowledged rights of 
Mexico, such a violation of the laws of natural 
justice, and from which such momentous conse- 
quences have flowed. 

The reason given by the president in his 
message of May 6th, 1846, for this movement, 
is, that " it became of urgent necessity to de- 
fend that portion of our country ;" — meaning, 
we suppose, the state of Texas. 

Now we will state a train of circmnstances 



REVIEW OF THE 



whicli give lis the riglit to suppose, nay, 
wMcli leave us no room to doubt, tliat protec- 
tion to our citizens was not its object, but 
tliat its expected and intended result was war 
with Mexico. 

Tlie last settlement wliicli it became of such 
" urgent necessity to defend" was left by the 
army one hundred and forty miles in their rear. 
We have seen that government knew that this 
movement would be a violent disregard of the 
claims of Mexico, which itself had declared en- 
titled to its respect, and moreover that it would 
be an invasion of the territory of Mexico, and 
a violation of the homes of its citizens. Now 
it is very difficult to understand why, if an in- 
vasion from Mexico was apprehended, a posi- 
tion for our army and all its stores, one hundred 
and forty miles from the people and territory 
which it w^as to defend, and which could be 
attacked from so many different directions, was 
so much more advantageous than any other, 
that this great outrage must be committed and 
war thus rushed upon to attain it. 

It is plain that the reason given by the ex- 
ecutive for this act, even if true, would not on- 
ly have been insufficient as a justification, but 



MEXICAN WAR. 89 



entirely inadequate as a motive for its conduct; 
what shall we say then when w^e find no such 
reason ever in fact to have existed ? 

ISiow government was at that time officially 
informed by General Taylor, that there were 
but few Mexican troops on or near the Eio 
Grande, that the inhabitants were friendly, 
that aj)pearances indicated a continued quiet- 
ness, and that there was no reason to appre- 
hend an invasion by Mexico. It was yet in ig- 
norance of the accession of Paredes at the time 
that the order to advance was transmitted. 

Is it possible to conceive what " urgent ne- 
cessity" the peaceful circumstances of the times 
created, which rendered it imperative that our 
national obligations should be so disregarded, 
this country invaded, and the horrors of war 
endangered and provoked ? 

No, it is not possible that government could 
have been influenced to this course by any 
such considerations. 

But the circumstances attending this move- 
ment not only show that the defence of Texas 
could not have been its object, they also tell 
us what its object was. 

On the 20th of January, a week after the 



90 eevieW of the 



order for his advance liad been issued to Gren- 
eral Taylor, the secretary of state writes to Mr. 
Slidell : " Should the Mexican government, by 
finally refusing to receive you, consummate the 
act of folly and bad faith of which they have 
afforded indications, nothmg mil remain for 
this government but to take the redi^ess of the 
wrongs of our citizens into our own hands." 
"The government, in anticipation of the final 
refusal of Mexico to receive you, have ordered 
the army to advance, and take a j^osition on the 
left bank of the Rio Grande, and have ordered 
the fleet into the gulf" Here we have the true 
reason of this movement unequivocally set 
forth. Congress and the people were attempt- 
ed to be imposed upon with the falsehood, that 
its object was to defend our citizens from at- 
tack, and our country from invasion ; but Mr. 
Slidell was informed, that it was done in an- 
ticipation of a refusal to receive him. And 
what was the army sent there to do if he should 
be refused ? The next sentence explains this 
also. " The president will then be enabled to 
act with vigor and promptitude, the moment 
that congress shall give him authority." Then 
according to the express avowal of the govern- 



MEXICAN WAR. gj 



ment, the army was sent across that great nat- 
ural boundary, and to the bank of "that 
grand and solitary river," to act 

A Tveek later the secretary writes again: 
" should that government refuse to receive you, 
the cup of forbearance will then have been 
exhausted. Nothing will then remain but a 
resort to arms." 

Mr. Slidell whites from Mexico : " The most 
extravagant pretensions will be made and in- 
sisted on, until the Mexican people shall be 
conraiced by hostile demonstrations, that pur 
difficulties must be settled promptly, either by 
negotiation, or by the sword." This letter was 
received in Washington on the 12th of Janua- 
ry, and the next day the order was issued for 
the advance of our army. 

The army now being prepared " to act," Mr. 
Slidell applies to the government of Paredes 
for reception ; and assuming a tone of offended 
dignity, he thus announces the ultimatum of 
his government. " The present state of quasi 
hostility, is incompatible with the dignity 
and interests of the United States, and it 
is now for Mexico to decide whether it shall 



93 REVIEW OF THE 



give place to negotiation, or to an oj)en rup- 
ture." 

Keceive the minister wliicli the United States 
chooses to send, abandon your position and pre- 
tensions, acknowledge that all your acts for a 
year towards her have been groundless and ab- 
surd ; do this instantly, not a word of explana- 
tion, or feel the power of her arms. Such is 
the character and tone of this strange diplo- 
macy. 

Then the reason given by the executive for 
this movement was not the motive wdiich led 
to it, but, made with a full knowledge of all the 
circumstances W'hich w^e have described, the 
deliberate purpose w^hich prompted the act 
was w^ar with. Mexico in the event of Mr. Sli- 
dell's rejection. We feel a degree of shame in 
thus con^dcting the executive out of its own 
mouth of such a piece of duplicity, of telling 
in a solemn message such an untruth to the 
American people and to the w'orld. 

It becomes a matter of serious inquiry, what 
w^ere the provocations, which had thus worn 
out the patience of our government, and ex- 
hausted its ''cup of forbearance." As but 



MEXICAN WAR. 93 



two causes of complaint have ever been nrged 
against Mexico, we mnst presume these to liave 
been all that existed. 

The first was, that at the annexation of Tex- 
as she ceased to pay the instalments of the debt 
to our citizens, which had been adjudged against 
her. The other injury, which was so grievous 
that it left no alternative '' but a resort to 
arms," was the refusal to receive a resident 
minister until the difficulty growing out of the 
annexation had been adjusted; "when" said 
Mexico, " diplomatic intercourse will follow of 
course." 

We have a right to presume that these 
were not sufficient grounds of war, because 
our government always denied the fact that it 
made war on their account. It exerted all its 
ingenuity to throw upon Mexico the odium of 
its commencement. 

And here again we see the inconsistency of 
wrong. The executive in its message of De- 
cember, 1845, and still more fully in that of 
the following year, recounts the injuries which 
our citizens had received from Mexico through 
a long series of years, and which still remained 
unredressed* Now the only tendency of this 



94 EBVIEW OF THE 



recital would be to justify our government in 
commencing a war. If tlie argument is not 
valid for this, it cannot be for any purpose. 
But we are immediately told tliat Mexico be- 
gan the war, that we made every effort to avoid 
it, and that it was forced upon us by her inva- 
sion. Through many pages government is la- 
boring to justify an act, which it is all the 
while insisting: that it did not commit. These 
two strings were badly out of tune, and the 
performance on them together produced a hor- 
rible discord. 

We shall not consume the time of our rea- 
der in proving that it was a crime for a great 
nation to make war upon a weak and distracted 
state upon such pretexts as these. The pay- 
ment of her debt by Mexico had been suspend- 
ed for about two years. The claims of our 
citizens on France for her spoliations remained 
neglected by that government for twenty 
years, and were at last amicably settled. 

We have seen that in accordance with na- 
tional usage, and with the far higher obliga- 
tions of justice and magnanimity, the United 
States, instead of visiting Mexico with their 
vengeaace, on account of her refusal to receive 



MEXICAN WAR. 95 



their minister, should have yielded to her just 
and proper demand. 

A quarrelsome people seeking a cause for 
hostility, a tyrant wanting an excuse for 
"blood, an ambitious and selfish government 
envying its neighbor her possessions, and 
watching an opportunity to despoil her of 
them, might take up with such imagined pro- 
vocation. But that a christian government, a 
friend of peace, a free enlightened people, 
should go to war on such pretexts as these, 
should use such language as we have read, and 
adopt such measures as we have witnessed, is 
as incomprehensible as it is disgraceful. 

But war with Mexico was not the only ob- 
ject of the movement to the Bio Grande. It 
was indeed its great ultimate end, but there 
was an incidental object which it was designed 
to effect, with the meanness of which the act 
of commencing war upon frivolous pretexts 
can aspire to no rivalry. 

We shall show, that the object of the ad- 
vance to that river was not only to involve 
this country in a war with Mexico, but was 
part of a deliberate contrivance to bring the 



96 REVIEW OF THE 



war about in sucli a manner as to throw on 
Mexico the odium of its commencement. 

The facts of the case present a strange enig^ 
ma. This hostile act w^as committed with an 
eagerness w^hich led to an unconstitutional as- 
sumption of power by the executive. That it was 
aware of the unconstitutionality of this order, 
is evident from the fact which we have already 
seen, that to conceal its character a deliberate 
falsehood was told to congress and the peo- 
ple. 

The secretary of state informed Mr. Slidell, 
as w^e have seen, that, having ordered the army 
to the Eio Grande, the president would be en- 
abled to act with vigor and jDromptitude the 
moment that congress should give him author- 
ity. The army encamps on the bank of the Rio 
Grande. The minister is rejected. Congress 
remains in session ready to receive any commu- 
nication from the executive. But that officer 
never asks for authority. Nearly two months 
elapse, but the executive, who was to act with 
such vigor and promptitude, remains entirely 
inactive. The army meanwhile has sat quietly 
down on acknowledged Mexican soil, blocka- 



MEXICAN WAR. 97 



ding her harbors, and threatening one of her 
cities, but instructed not to molest her posts 
and citizens, not to strike the first blow. 

Why was this strange silence ? There can 
be only one explanation. The purpose of the 
executive was accomplished when the army 
took up its position on the Kio Grande. It 
was not sent there to act, but to provoke a 
blow. The case admits of no other supposi- 
tion. The presence of the army accomplished 
no other object. Time has failed to disclose 
to us any other object for which it could have 
been sent there and maintained there, in the 
manner that it was. 

The most favorable interpretation that can 
be put on Mr. Buchanan's dispatches to Mr. 
Slidell is, that the army was sent to the Rio 
Grande for the purpose of intimidation. Thi^ 
object failed. Mr. Slidell was rejected. Gov- 
ernment knew it. He was ordered home, but 
the army was not moved. Of course the gov 
ernment who kept it there had something for 
it to do. It could no longer serve to intimi- 
date, it could only irritate and provoke. The 
executive must have known that hostilities 
would be the inevitable consequence of its 
4 



03 REVIEW'' OF THE 



presence. Then to incite Mexico to war must 
have been the design of the movement. 

If the antecedent circumstances of the case 
admit of no other conclusion than this, those 
which follow establish its truth beyond a ques- 
tion. 

During this "masterly inactivity" the plot 
was ripening. The carefully laid train was 
burning up to the mine. Mexico, having re" 
ceived injuries which would arouse the spirit 
of a slave, having seen hostilities committed 
against her on account of the " urgent neces- 
sity to defend that portion of our country," 
which no nation on earth would have endured, 
finally declares her determination to prosecute 
the hostilities which the United States had 
commenced, and sends her army across the Rio 
Grande to attack the invaders. 

On the receipt of this intelligence, the ex- 
ecutive sends a war message to congress. 
"Mexico," it declares, " has passed the bounda- 
ry of the United States, has invaded our ter- 
ritory, and shed American blood on American 
soil ;" and it calls upon the nation to punish 
this outrage, and to prosecute to " an honora- 
ble peace " the war thus " forced upon us." 



MEXICAN WAR. 99 



For tlie moment we will pass over the right 
of Mexico, and only consider the territory to 
have been in dispute. While territory re- 
mains in this situation, and before the claims 
of the parties have been adjusted, the right of 
one claimant is always presumed to be equally 
good with that of the other. In the first en- 
counter between detachments of the two 
armies, the attack w^as made by the Ameri- 
cans. The American blood shed, in the lan- 
guage of the executive, on our own soil, and 
about which so much patriotic indignation was 
wasted, turned out to have been shed by a 
Mexican company in repelling a charge of 
American cavalry, in self-defence, against a 
wanton attack made upon it by the direction 
of the executive of the United States, and un- 
der an order from the commander-in-chief to 
capture and " destroy" it. 

Now if the invasion of that territory and 
the shedding the blood of Americans there by 
Mexico were a sufficient cause of w^ar for us, 
its prior invasion, the first attack and the shed- 
ding the blood of Mexicans there by us were 
at least an equal cause of war for her. 

But moreover, its own acts show that the ex- 



100 REVIEW OF THE 



eciitive, wlien it made tliat declaration to the 
world, knew it to be totally and unqualifiedly 
untrue. We know tliat this is strong lan- 
guage ; but when the occujDation of territory 
by Mexico, which government knew to be her 
own, and for which it had just offered her five 
millions of dollars, is pronounced to be a suffi- 
cient cause of war against her, how can the in- 
consistency be reconciled? The one must 
have been squandering, or the other must be 
false. 

There appears also in the executive a desire 
to kindle in the minds of our people a spirit 
of war against Mexico. Having, in pursuit of 
its remorseless purpose brought the two coun- 
tries into collision, its next object was to enlist 
the enthusiasm of the people in the war which 
it purposed to wage. " Texas organized coun- 
ties extending to the Eio Grande, their inhab- 
itants are represented in your congress," pro- 
claims the government which had just been 
officially informed that Corpus Christi was 
the most western point occupied by that state. 
"After the battle of San Jacinto, Mexico never 
crossed the Eio Grande," proclaims the same 
authority, whose merchants paid duties to Mex- 



MEXICAN WAR. IQl 



ico at Point Isabel, and wMcli liad ordered 
General Taylor to respect lier posts and citi- 
zens east of that river. " Louisiana extended 
to tlie Eio Grande. Tliat was tlie boundary 
of our original possessions. Jefferson, Madi- 
son, Monroe, Pinkney, Adams, Benton and 
Clay, have all declared it," announces the ex- 
ecutive, laboring by the introduction of a blind 
and antiquated claim to excite the national 
pride and to complete the confusion in which 
it had involved the transaction. " Patriots of 
America, avenge the blood of your fellow-citi- 
zens shed on you own soil !" echo throughout 
the land the organs of that government which 
had just offered to Mexico five millions of dol- 
lars for the country. The excitable nation 
swallows this series of falsehoods, and rushes 
with a blind enthusiasm into the contest. 
Thus the object of government was attained, 
we were involved in war with Mexico, and our 
citizens believed the scandalous deception that 
she was the aggressor, and we the wronged 
and insulted nation, compelled to fight, but 
ready to sacrifice all but our honor for the sake 
of peace. 



102 REVIEW OF THE 



CHAPTEE IX. 



The Declaration of War. The duty of Congress. The consequences 
which would have followed the performance of that duty. 

In his message of the llth of May, the 
president declared that war existed, and not- 
w^ithstanding all our efforts to avoid it, existed 
by the act of Mexico herself; and recom- 
mended the most prompt and energetic mea- 
sures to bring the war to a speedy and success- 
ful termination. 

An act pro\ddingfor the prosecution of "the 
existing war," and authorizing the president 
to employ the entire military force of the coun- 
try, and to accept the services of fifty thousand 
volunteers for its prosecution, was passed by 
congress on the 13th, the preamble of w^hich 
declared, that " by the act of the republic of 
Mexico, a state of war exists between that gov- 
ernment and the United States." 



MEXICAN WAR. ^03 



Let us suppose a great and cliristian govern- 
ment, a friend of peace, to have become so lit- 
tle the slave of pride, that it is willing to ac- 
knowledge that it has done wrong. Let us 
suppose, that this government claims the title 
to territory which has been for a long time in 
the possession of another power, that it has re- 
cognized the claims of this power, and has pro- 
vided that the dispute should be settled by ne- 
gotiation. Let us further suppose, that while 
the question remains yet unsettled, the execu- 
tive of this government should send an ar- 
my to take possession of the entire territory 
in dispute ; that this army after being encamp- 
ed for a month on its farthest boundary where 
it had committed undisguised acts of hostility, 
having received protests from the inhabitants 
and authorities against its advance, and orders 
from the government to retire, is at last attack- 
ed, and after some bloodshed becomes placed in 
a perilous situation, and the executive should 
communicate these facts to the legislature. 
What course of conduct might we expect that 
body to adopt? Would it declare that war 
existed by the act of its adversary, and place 
means in the hands of the executive to prose- 



J 04 REVIE\^ OF THE 

cute tlie contest witli energy ? We will as- 
sume that it Avould not make this declaration, 
unless it had become satisfied that it was true ; 
nor take this irretrievable step, unless it was 
convinced that its cause v^as just. Its mem- 
bers would first inquire, what is the cause of 
these hostilities. They would not look far 
ofi*, and perplex themselves with speculations 
as to what might have been their remote oc- 
casion ; but would be satisfied with the obvi- 
ous and necessary cause which had been com- 
municated to them. They would then ask, 
was this act of our executive justifiable. And 
to answer this, they would only need to learn 
that the claim of their adversary still remain- 
ed unadjusted, and that their army found the 
country as it had ever been, inhabited by peo- 
ple of that nation alone, and governed by its 
laws. They would inquire what cause existed 
to warrant such an aggression. And when 
they were told that the only provocation which 
Lad " exhausted the cup of forbearance" had 
been a neglect for two years to pay her debt 
by their adveisary, and a refusal to receive 
their minister, they would not hesitate to say 
we have done wrong. We have provoked and 



MEXICAN WAR. 106 



began a war without a cause. We cannot con- 
demn in our adversaries that patriotism, for 
the v/ant of which we would execrate our own 
countrymen. We cannot prosecute this war 
with justice. It is opposed to every princi- 
ple of humanity and every precept of religion. 
"Deity has not a single attribute that would 
side with us in such a contest." 

Their only inquiry would be how to j)revent 
the shedding another drop of blood. They 
would order the invading army to return im- 
mediately within their own undisputed terri- 
tory. They would select the greatest and. 
wisest of their number, and send them with- 
out delay to arrest hostilities and negotiate a 
peace. 

Surely the ingenuous mind can require no 
argument to prove the abstract justice of such 
a course, and the wrong which would mark any 
other conduct. We envy not the moral sense 
of that man, whose mind does not rush instinct- 
ively to the conclusion, that there could be no 
other course consistent with Christianity and 
justice. 

Such, as we have shown, was the case of the 
United States and Mexico, as viewed most fa- 



106 REVIEW OF THE 

vorably for the former. This high duty de- 
volved upon congress. There existed no cir- 
cumstances which could alter or modify it. 
This duty they did not pei'form. Only four- 
teen in the house of representatives and four 
in the senate refused to vote for a declaration, 
which, being false, no one of them could have 
known to be true, and for an act whose conse- 
quences they could not foresee, founded on the 
assumed truth of that declaration. We say 
founded on its assumed truth, for we w^ould 
fain vindicate the common sense of congress, 
though at the expense of its principles, from 
the imputation of authorizing these vast prepa- 
rations which three months could not see com- 
pleted, and placing at the disposal of the ex- 
ecutive this great force, which could scarcely 
within the same time be brought into the field, 
merely to rescue General Taylor from a peril- 
ous position where he must be conquered or 
from w^hich he must be rescued almost before 
the vote of congress could be taken. Reflec- 
tion and wisdom seem to have fled frightened 
at the echo from the battle field. 

We have supposed that the action of con- 
gress on this subject should have been regula- 



MEXICAN WAB. JQT 



ted, not by its probable consequences, but sole- 
ly by a sense of duty. It may be well, how- 
ever, to glance at the more obvious results 
which would have followed such an exhibition 
of justice. 

There cannot, we think, be a reasonable 
doubt that such a course would have effected 
an immediate suspension of hostilities, and a 
speedy peace. Mexico surely did not desire 
war, and the earnest and generous manner in 
which these objects would have been sought 
would have ensured their attainment. In this 
peace the nti possidetis would probably have 
formed the basis for the establishment of the 
boundary ; securing to the United States every 
foot of territory which they became entitled 
to by the annexation of Texas. The claims of 
our citizens upon Mexico would have been ad- 
justed, and the most liberal commercial rela- 
tions would probably have been established 
between the two countries. 

Just, magnanimous and generous conduct is 
never lost even upon a savage. The human 
mind never becomes so brutalized that it can- 
not in some degree be softened and prompted 



108 REVIB\V»OF THE 

to rivalry by its exhibition. Its tendency in 
this case must have been to dissipate the na- 
tional prejudices of Mexico, to liberalize her 
^dews and policy, and to establish a lasting 
friendship toward us. There would have been 
a nobleness in the deed which would have en- 
sured for us a higher respect among foreign 
nations than a thousand victories. There is 
something in the heart of man which leads him, 
oftentimes unconsciously, to imitate the con- 
duct and the disposition which he admires in 
others. Who can estimate the silent influence 
of that nation which would not do wrong ? 

But more valuable than all its other conse- 
quences, would have been the effect of the act 
upon our national character. Presenting be- 
fore the people an example which would have 
tended to check their strange eagerness for 
war and reckless desire for the acquisition of 
territory, it would have exalted and refined 
their sense of national justice, and would have 
given birth to a better love for their country, 
a purer pride in her glory won by such acts as 
these, and a higher respect for her laws. 

We have finished our examination of the 



MEXICAN WAR. 109 



causes which led to the Mexican w^ar, and the 
means which should have been adopted by onr 
government to avoid it. 

We have seen, that its occasion was the an- 
nexation of Texas to the United States, a mea- 
sure which, though not inconsistent with jus- 
tice to Mexico, must be acknov/leclged to have 
been uncalled for, and in view of its probable 
consequences, to have been unwise and wrong. 
We have seen, that the war might have been 
prevented by sending a commissioner to Mexi- 
co ; for its refusal to do which, the United 
States can offer no excuse. We have seen, that 
the advance of our army to the Rio Grande 
was a deliberate invasion of the known territo- 
ry of Mexico, and was the sole cause of the war. 
We have seen, that this invasion was not for 
the defence of our territory, but was the result 
of a determination to wage war against Mexico 
in the event of the rejection of our minister. 
We have seen this determination studiously 
concealed, and means adopted to goad Mexico 
to hostilities ; and when these had proved suc- 
cessful, w^e have seen our country incited to the 
contest by the falsehood that her army had in- 
vaded oui^ soil. And we have seen moreover, 



110 REVIEW OF THE 



that congress might probably have stayed the 
war even after its commencement. Then on us 
must rest the whole responsibility of this un- 
provoked and wanton aggression, as clearly 
without justification as it is without remedy. 

This is a hard judgment, but we solemnly be- 
lieve that it is the voice of truth, and that when 
the prejudices and passions of the present 
hour shall have cleared away, when the causes 
of this w^ar shall have become more universally 
known, and history shall have sifted the truth 
from error, posterity will record the same de- 
cision — that the misconduct of our rulers in- 
volved this country in a crime for which no 
extenuation can be pleaded, and brought upon 
us a calamity whose extent we can but imper- 
fectly realize. 



MEXICAN WAR. IX]^ 



CHAPTER X. 



The Objects of the War. Conquest. Its Progress. The Treaty of 
peace. 

We come now to inquire into the objects of 
this war, in wliich examination we shall give 
a general view of its progress and events. 

The president, in his message of December, 
1846, says: "The war has not been waged 
with a view to conquest, but having been be- 
gun by Mexico, it has been carried into the en- 
emy's country with a view to obtain an honor- 
able peace, and thereby secure an ample in- 
demnity for the expenses of the war, as well as 
to our much injured citizens, who hold large 
demands against Mexico." 

The meaning of this enigmatical expression, 
" an honorable peace," something which was to 
possess such a great value in ready money, we 
shall discover presently. 



112 REVIEW OF THE 



'Now we have seen that the war was not 
commenced by Mexico, but by our govern- 
ment. How an honorable peace could follow 
such a war, causeless and disgraceful to a chris- 
tian people, it is beyond our power to compre- 
hend. The wrong which marked its inception 
must attend every step of its progress. The 
obligation to arrest it which existed at its com- 
mencement, must be renewed every moment 
of its continuance. Its victories must be mur- 
der, its acquisitions must be robbery. 

We have seen a determined purpose in the 
executive to effect a war, a purpose for the at- 
tainment of which truth and the constitution 
were alike disregarded. 

And for this purpose the messages of the 
executive furnish us with no motive. One 
thing however is plain. The neglect of Mexico 
to pay her debt to our citizens and her refusal 
to receive our minister were not its causes. 
Had they been, had the declarations of the ex- 
ecutive to Mr. Slidell been sincere, had it believ- 
ed its own story, that the rights and honor of the 
country had been invaded, and that indeed 
nothing remained " but a resort to arms," it was 
clearly its duty to lay the matter before con- 



M1EXTCAN WAB. l|3 



gress, which was then in session, and which 
could alone adopt the necessary measures. It 
would undoubtedly have done so. Deceit 
and unconstitutional means would not then 
have been resorted to. Besides, government 
stoutly denied that it made war at all, thereby 
showing its own consciousness that the reasons 
which it had before declared to have exhausted 
its cup of forbearance, were not only Ridiculous 
as a justification, but useless as excuses for 
commencing the war. No, these could not 
have been the reasons which led to it. 

Then what were they ? What was the pur- 
pose for which this cunningly contrived plot 
was laid to involve the country in a war with- 
out the sanction of congress, and falsehoods 
were employed to incite the people to its pros- 
ecution ? 

Mr. Calhoun, so late as January, 1847, de- 
clared in the senate, that up to that hour the 
causes of the war were left to conjecture. All 
was then involved in mystery. Since the 
words of Mr. Calhoun were uttered, day has 
dawned upon this darkness, and the mystery 
is revealed. The reasons given to Mr. Slidell 
are now shown to have been as false as was the 



1]^4 rev!ew of the 

cry of defence by wHcli the nation was arous- 
ed. That amiable sympathy for " our much 
injured citizens" was all an imposition. The 
pretended necessity to take the redress of their 
wrongs into our own hands, was only a cloak 
to a darker purpose. 

The enigma is solved, and as at the touch of 
the enchanter's wand, all the contradictions 
which we have exposed stand in perfect har- 
mony. They crystalize in wondrous order 
around one all-pervading purpose. 

Conquest was the animating idea of all this 
scheme. The acquisition of the territory of 
another nation was the sole purpose for which 
this war was devised and carried on. All the 
pretended sympathy was for this. ^ This it was 
which so mysteriously exhausted the cup of 
forbearance. The country of Mexico was in- 
vaded for this and this alone. 

This fact we shall proceed to establish by 
proof, convincing even to scepticism itself. 

When we know that a person desires the 
possession of any particular object, and all his 
actions for a long time after are precisely 
adapted to its attainment, and finally he does 
obtain and possess it, and expresses his gratifica- 



MEXICAN WAR. n^ 



tion at tlie acquisition wliich lie lias made, we 
liave a right to suppose that its attainment 
was liis constant purpose during all that time, 
and that the adaptation of his acts to that at- 
tainment was but the carrying out of his origi- 
nal desio^n. 

In November, 1845, the president instruct- 
ed Mr. Slidell to negotiate with Mexico for 
the purchase of the country down to the Rio 
Grande, New-Mexico, and the two Californias. 
He was authorized to pay not more than five 
millions of dollars for the first, ten millions for 
the first and second, and twenty-five millions 
for the whole, and was instructed to procure 
them as much cheaper as possible. He was 
directed and encouraged by great personal 
prospects to use his utmost exertions to pur- 
chase the territory. 

We shall divide the war with Mexico into 
two acts. In the first we shall see the posses- 
sion of this identical country secured, and our 
authority established over it ; and in the sec^ 
ond we shall witness the process by which the 
title to it was extorted. 

The Mexican army on the Rio Grande hav- 
ing been defeated in two desperate and une^ 



^IQ REflEW OF THE 



qnal contests, General Taylor moved with his 
column, now increased to about six thousand 
men, upon Monterey. He arrived before that 
city on the 19th of September, and after a ter- 
rible assault, continued through two days, and 
against almost insurmountable obstacles both 
of nature and art, made himself master of that 
stronghold. A division of nearly three thou- 
sand men under General Wool, left San Anto- 
nio de Bexar about the last of September for 
the conquest of Coahuila and Chihuahua. 
They entered Monclova on the 31st of October 
without bloodshed. General Taylor's advanc- 
ed position was found to command the depart- 
ment of Chihuahua, and it was deemed advi- 
sable to concentrate the different columns. 
General Wool's command was therefore divert- 
ed from its original destination, and mo\ang 
southward, established a communication with 
General Taylor at Parras, the latter at the 
same time occupying Saltillo with a part of his 
forces. 

General Kearney having been ordered to 
march to the conquest of New Mexico and Cal- 
ifornia, left Fort Leavenworth on the 30th of 
Juae,oiithat distant expedition. He reached 



MEXICAN WAR. II7 



Santa Fe on tlie 18tli of August, after a marcli 
of nearly nine hundred miles, and took posses- 
sion of the country in the name of the United 
States, almost without a show of resistance. 
With about three hundred dragoons he then 
commenced his long march to the settled dis- 
tricts of California. Before leaving the valley 
of the Rio Grande, however, he was met by 
an express from Colonel Fremont of such a 
nature that he determined to send back a part 
of his force, and selecting only one hundred 
men to accompany hinl, continued on his route. 
On his arrival he found all that vast country 
in the quiet possession of the Americans, its 
conquest having been already completed by 
Commodore Stockton and Colonel Fremont. 

A company of regular artillery was sent by 
sea in August to Monterey upon the Pacific, 
and these were followed in the next month by 
a regiment of volunteers " persons of various 
pursuits," raised in New- York city and its 
neighborhood, for the express purpose of set- 
tling in California after they should have com- 
pleted its conquest. These never returned. 
This plan of colonizing with soldiers the terri- 
tory to be acquired by conquest was conceived 



X18 RET^EW OF THE 

by government among tlie earliest plans of the 
war, and was communicated to tlie commander 
of the expedition within two months after the 
first blow had been struck on the Rio Grande. 
About nineteen- twentieths of these conquests 
were unoccupied land. The instructions given 
to the commanding officers were that the coun- 
try was " not to be surrendered in any event, 
or under any contingency." Commodore Sloat, 
who at that time commanded our squadron in 
the Pacific, says in his general order of July 
'Tth, 1846 : " It is not 'only our -duty to take 
California, but to preserve it afterwards as a 
part of the United States at all hazards." 
The secretary of war, in his instructions to 
General Kearney, says : " It is known that a 
large body of Mormon emigrants are en route 
for California, for the purj)ose of settling in 
that country. You are desired to use all pro- 
per means to have a good understanding with 
them, to the end that the United States may 
have their co-operation in taking possession of 
and holding that country." In August, the 
officer in command of our naval force in the 
Pacific, is ordered "to take, if not already 
done, immediate possession of Upper Califor- 



MEXICAN WAB. HQ 



nia, so that if the treaty of peace should be 
made on the basis of the uti possidetis^ it may 
leave California to the United States." The 
same month, Commodore Stockton made a 
proclamation to the people scattered over that 
great region, that "the territory of California 
now belongs to the United States." A few 
days after, he writes to the government : 
" This rich and beautiful country belongs to 
the United States, and is forever free from 
Mexican dominion." In these pro^^nces the 
conquerors proceeded to establish civil gov- 
ernments, and the inhabitants were required 
to take the oath of allegiance to the United 
States. In his message of December, 1846, 
the president says: "It may be proper to 
provide for the security of these important 
conquests, by making an adequate appropria- 
tion for the purpose of erecting fortifications, 
and for the maintenance of our possession 
and authority over them ;" and in the same 
paper he felicitates the American people on 
" the vast extension of our territorial limits," 
It is certain that the attention and exertions 
of our government were thus far exclusively di- 
rected to the conquest and permanent possession 



120 REVIEW OF THE 



of Upper California and New Mexico, and to the 
military occupation of Tamaulipas, New Leon, 
Coaliuila and Cliilinahua, to be held, as was 
afterwards avowed, as a means of compelling 
the surrender of the former. 

We shall now examine the second act of the 
war, or the summary way of compelling a 
cession of these territories. 

In July, soon after the opening of the war, 
an offer of negotiation was made by the presi- 
dent. As this was not accepted, we do not 
know Avhat its basis would have been. In Jan- 
uary following, the offer was renewed and ac- 
cepted by Mexico, on the condition that our 
forces should first evacuate her territory. This 
condition was pronounced wholly inadmissible, 
and that attem]3t also failed. That the acqui- 
sition of this identical territory was the sole 
object of the war at that time is shown by the 
following circumstance. In January, 1847, a 
bill was introduced into congress, and which 
was finally passed on the last day of the session, 
appropriating three millions of dollars, for the 
purpose of enabling the president to conclude a 
treaty of peace with Mexico. The senatoi' in- 
troducing the bin says : '^ The president has 



MEXICAN WAR, X21 



reason to believe, that upon a certain advance 
being made to Mexico to enable ber to pay ber 
expenses, sbe will be willing to cede to us New 
Mexico and California." 

In the meantime General Taylor, witb bis 
small, beroic band of about forty-live bundred 
men, bad burled back in confusion from tbe bill 
of Buena Vista tbe vast army of upwards of 
twenty thousand, tbat witb Santa Anna at its 
bead advanced like tbe billows of tbe sea to 
overwhelm him ; and Vera Cruz, with tbe re- 
nowned castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, had fallen 
before the science and bravery w^hich bad been 
combined against them. The president, mani- 
festing a desire and making exertions for the 
termination of tbe war, which, bad the inva- 
sion admitted of any excuse, and had tbe terms 
of peace been better than an outrage, w^ould 
have been truly laudable, appointed Mr. Trist, 
in April following, a commissioner to proceed 
to tbe bead-quarters of the army, with full 
powers to negotiate a treaty of peace, when- 
ever the Mexican government should desire to 
do so. He did not reach the army until after 
tbe national bridge had been triumphantly 
passed, and tbe brilliant victory of Cerro Gor- 



122 REVTEVf OF THE 



do had crowned our arms. The dispatches 
which he bore, were not communicated to the 
Mexican government until in June, when our 
army had reached the populous and wealthy 
city of Puebla. 

General Scott, having been reinforced by 
about -^ve thousand men, left his quarters in 
that city early in August, and moved toward 
the capital. On the 19th and 20th of that 
month he encountered the hosts of the en- 
emy at Contreras and Churubusco, the first 
nine miles and the second four miles distant 
from the city of Mexico, achieving two deci- 
sive but costly victories. On the 24th, an 
armistice was concluded between the two ar- 
mies, to allow opportunity for negotiation be- 
tween Mr. Trist and the Mexican commission- 
ers. The former had brought the plan of a 
treaty with him from Washington. And what 
was this plan ? It asked for no indemnity for 
the expenses of the war, for no satisfaction for 
the claims of our citizens, for no atonement for 
the indignities of which our government had 
complained ; but it asked Mexico to make T)ut 
to the United States a bill of sale of the terri- 
tory to the Eio Grande, New Mexico and 



MEXICAN WAR. 193 



the two Californias, together witli the right of 
way across the isthmus of Tehuantepec, for 

which the United States were to pay 

dollars, the blank beiilg left unfilled. The 
Mexican commissioners reply to this proposal, 
that Mexico having consented to surrender 
Texas to the Rio Grande to the United States 
for a proper consideration, the cause of the war 
has disappeared, and the war itself ought to 
cease. In respect to the other territories, " it 
is contrary to every idea of justice," say they, 
'^ to make war upon a people, because it refu- 
ses to sell territory w^hich its neighbor wishes 
to buy." "Mexico cannot sell her people 
against their vv^ill, and she declines the propo- 
sition." But accej)tance of the proposition, or 
war was the only alternative. On the 6 th of 
September, the armistice was broken off, and the 
war was renewed, to compel Mexico to part 
with about one-third of her territory. This 
was followed on the 8th, by the battle of El Mo- 
lino del Rey won by General Worth, with only 
about three thousand men. On the 13th, af- 
ter a cannonade and bombardment from the 
early morning of the day before, the citadel 
of Chapultej^ec, the last and most impregna- 



124 REVIEW OK THE 



ble defence beyond tlie walls of Mexico, was 
carried by an assault, perhaps the most exci- 
ting and terrible in the history of America. 
Driven by the resistless onset from every low- 
er position, and finally from the stronghold it- 
self, the Mexican forces retreated along the 
great Belen and San Cosme causways in confu- 
sion to the city. Our army followed in eager 
pursuit, and when nightfall stopped their fur- 
ther progress, they had carried the batteries in 
the suburbs and forced the gat^s of Belen and 
San Cosme. Early the next morning the city 
surrendered to General Scott, the federal gov- 
ernment and the army having fled by night 
from its walls. Thus after ^ve desperate bat- 
tles in the valley of Mexico, with an army of 
only ten thousand men, General Scott entered 
this most ancient city in America, the seat of 
the Azt^ec empire, since the days of Cortez the 
splendid metropolis of the Spanish vice-royal- 
ty and now the capital of the Mexican repub- 
lic, on whose fortifications the highest military 
science in the world had been ex' austed, and 
which was held by an army of more than thirty 
thousand defenders. 

In October following, Mr. Trist was recall- 



MEXICAN WAH. • |25 



ed. In December, 1847, the president in his 
message to congress, says : " I am satisfied 
that New Mexico and California should never 
be surrendered." " As Mexico refuses all in- 
demnity, we should adopt measures to indem- 
nify ourselves, by appropriating permanently 
a portion of her territory ;" and he proposes 
without further ceremony, the establishment 
of territorial governments over those coun- 
tries. He says : ''To reject indemnity by re- 
fusing to accept a cession of territory, would 
be to wage war without a purjDose or a definite 
object." "If we refuse this, we can obtain 
nothing else." And what is this for which in- 
demnity is required ? Why first, for the ex- 
penses of the war itself, and second, for the 
debt of Mexico to our citizens, the payment of 
which had been suspended on the annexation 
of Texas. 

Suppose a victorious government at the close 
of such a war as this, to meet its humbled ad- 
versary in negotiation, and the latter should 
ask : ' What are the grievances for the re- 
dress of which you have carried on this con- 
test?' Suppose that it should answer, 'our 
principal demand is for indemnity for the ex- 



126 REVIEW OF THE 

penses of tlie war.' The conquered would re- 
ply, ' that is of course merely incidental, but 
you desire redress, we suppose, for the wrongs 
on account of which the war was begun.' 
Suppose it should say, ' these are the demands 
of our citizens upon you, which you ceased two 
years before to pay according to agreement.' 
' And is it for this.' O how would they ex- 
claim, 'and is it for this, that you have killed 
our people, and ravaged our country, and im- 
poverished our government, and now propose 
to dismember our territory ? And can it be 
that you have even no excuse but this, for all 
the evils you are bringing on our land?' 

O no, it was not for this. We will strip off 
this veil of indemnity with a few plain facts, 
and conquest will stand naked before us. In 
his message of December, 1847, the president 
says : "As the territory acquired might be of 
greater value than our just demands, our com- 
missioner was authorized to stipulate for the 
payment of such additional pecuniary conside- 
ration as might be deemed reasonable." It will 
be recollected that the extreme limit prescrib- 
ed to Mr. Slidell, was twenty-five millions of 
dollars for the whole, including Lower Califor- 



MEXICAN WAR. 127 



nia. "Our just demands," as the presideifi^ 
would estimate them, amounted to about eighw 
millions of dollars, and we were to pay t(\ 
Mexico for the country, of course, its excess in 
value over this sum. 

Mexico being entirely subdued, her army 
annihilated, her ports, her cities, her capital in 
our hands, and her means of resistance entirely 
at an end, finally consented to our terms of 
peace ; and after long negotiation a treaty was 
concluded at the city of Guadalupe Hidalgos, 
on the 2nd of February, 1848. 

By this treaty, the country to the Kio 
Grande, New Mexico and Upper California, 
were ceded to the United States. In conside- 
ration of this territory, the United States con- 
tracted to pay to Mexico fifteen millions of 
dollars, and to discharge the latter from all lia- 
bility to our citizens, assuming herself the pay- 
ment of their claims. These amounted accord- 
ing to the computation of the executive, to five 
or six millions more. Lower California may 
be considered worth four or five millions of 
dollars. Then we gave for the country the 
largest price which Mr. Slidell had been au- 
thorized to offer, before a sword had been 



12S BEVlfiw OF THE 



drawn in the contest. Two-thirds of the ex- 
penses of the war had been incurred since Mr. 
Trist's appointment, and still the smallest " irb- 
demnity " which he was then authorized to re- 
ceive, was found sufficient at its close. 

Now in view of these facts, we ask impar- 
tial and reflecting men, what room there can 
be found to doubt that this war was carried 
on for the sole object, and with the undivided 
purpose of compelling Mexico to sell her ter- 
ritory to the United States ; that money was 
nothing, blood was nothing, but the territory 
must be obtained. 

There is a strange unity about the whole 
transaction, exhibiting an unwavering fixed- 
ness of purpose. In the instructions to Mr. 
Slidell, we see the original conception. This is 
followed by the conquest of the territory, with 
the determination first expressed in acts, and 
then avowed in words to keep it, Mexico wil- 
ling or unwilling. Connected with this was 
the military occupation of the departments on 
the Rio Grande, " to be held as a means of co- 
ercing Mexico to just terms of peace." We 
quote the language of the executive. This not 
being sufficient, our army is sent through deso- 



MEXICAN WAR, ^29 



lation and blood to her capital, to compel ac- 
quiescence in the identical bargain first conceiv- 
ed, and inflexibly insisted on. Where now is 
" the indemnity for the past and security for 
the future," that thinest subterfuge, under 
which it was ever attempted to conceal a na- 
tional robbery ? 

When not a blow had been struck, when 
ten millions, and when fifty millions of dollars 
had been expended, w^hen one thousand, and 
when twenty thousand lives had been sacrifi- 
ced, when it was proposed to conquer a peace, 
and when it w^as proposed to purchase a peace, 
the same constant price w^as oifered for the 
same territory, the same unvarying surrender 
was demanded. 

The bargain and sale had no connection 
w^hatever with the war, except as the latter was 
the means of compelling the former. The war 
effected no other object but to extort from 
Mexico her consent to this transaction ; and 
as our government w^as perfectly satisfied and 
even gratified with the result, announcing the 
^'' ho7i07xihle jpeace^'' for which we had fought to 
be attained, we must conclude that it proposed 
to itself no other object. From this alterna- 
6 



330 REVIEW OF THE 



tive there is no escape. Either tliis war was 
prosecuted solely to compel Mexico to sell her 
lands and their inhabitants at a predetermined 
price, or else its object remains as yet unat- 
tained. The blood and treasure of our people 
have been poured out like w^ater either to ef- 
fect an unjust conquest, or for a purpose which 
has never yet been accomplished. 

We have thus presented as briefly as possi- 
ble, the progress and objects of this war. 
Commenced in unjust aggression, it was prose- 
cuted even to the end for no other object, but 
to possess ourselves of the territory of another 
republic against her wdll. A robbery in its 
inception, it maintained its character to the 
end. We are unable to contemjolate without 
indignation and shame, this most unjust war, 
w^hose wickedness the splendor of its victories 
is insufficient to veil. Well and truly it was 
declared by a meeting of our citizens in the 
city of NcAv-York, in 1845, as they read in the 
political heavens the signs of this remorseless 
purpose of our government, that war w^ith 
Mexico would be " a w^ar for conquest, an un- 
just war, a war in w^hich the nation would be 
sustained by no sense of right, but condemned 



MEXICAN WAR. JgJ 



by the unanimous voice of the civilized and 
christian world." 

We have finished our review of the causes 
and conduct of this wicked and unjust wrong, 
in which the crime of our rulers involved our 
country. We shall now proceed to a view^ of 
its consequences. 



132 EEvftiW OF THE 



CHAPTEE XI. 



The Benefits of the War considered. The payment of the claims of 
our citizens against Mexico. The acquisition of territory. Value of 
this conquest to the United States, and to the cause of freedom. 

Let us turn our eyes to tlie benefits of tMs 
conquest. Some of our citizens have cause for 
satisfaction at tlie certain and speedy payment 
of tlieir claims against Mexico. These we sup- 
pose tliat tlie United States miglit liave paid as 
well without bloodshed and the waste of other 
millions, as with them. The only other benefits 
which are said to have resulted from the war, so 
far as we have been able to learn, have been the 
acquisition of New Mexico and California, and 
the left bank of the Rio Grande. Executive 
imagination has summoned up a mighty nation 
on their hills, and in their valleys. We have 
seen in printed vision its waters w^hite with the 
wings of commerce, and its fields laden with 



MEXICAN WAR. 133 



the fruits of plenty — a new home opened to 
mankind, to freedom and to civilization — and 
all this by means of the Mexican war. This, 
the nation has been solemnly informed, consti- 
tutes indemnity for the past.^ 

"We have no disposition to doubt the truth 
of this prophecy. We hope and believe that 
some generation not far distant will witness 
its fulfillment. But another question presents 
itself, which is of considerable consequence in 
this connexion, and to vfhich we are by no 
means so ready to yield our assent. Was the 
Mexican war necessary to the attainment of 
this result? For of course, if it was not, if 
this consummation would have been reached as 
well without the war, it cannot be regarded as 
its consequence, and constitutes no "indemnity 
for the past." 

We do not believe that there is an individ- 
ual, who in the exercise of a sober and intelli- 
gent judgment, will say that the Mexican war 
was necessary in order to plant freedom on the 
shores of the Pacific, or in the valleys of New 
Mexico. The occupation of those countries 



"* President's answer to a resolution of the house of representatives. 
Congressional Globe 1847-8, page 990. 



134 REVIEW OF THE 



by a race of freemen, would under any cir- 
cumstances have been inevitable. There did 
not exist before the war any reason to doubt 
such a result. We are familiar with the ad- 
vance of our own race in these United States. 
Seventy years ago the . AUeghanies were our 
western wall. 

There is no conquest like that of the plow. 
The spoils of battle pass away generally with 
its victors, sometimes with its victims. But 
when the civilized and civilizing emigrant 
plants himself in a new country, its destiny is, 
in most instances, fixed forever. The tree of 
^civilization roots itself deep in the soil, and in 
its turn bears fruit, and scatters its seed be- 
yond. 

The principle of democracy is the promi- 
nent feature in the character of this race. It 
has become an element of thought in the minds 
of men. It is not possible that a state should 
arise on our western coasts, which would not 
be governed according to the will of its inhab- 
itants. There is no one who has seen the broad 
river of emigration sweep away the forest and 
its kings, who can say that when it has flowed 
on to the shores of the Pacific, its w^aters will 



MEXICAN WAR. 



135 



be less pure and fertilizing tlian tliey are to- 
day. 

It is said, however, that without this war the 
United States might never have obtained pos- 
session of that country, that even if it had be- 
come a home of freedom, another nation might 
have arisen there. We confess that we should 
rejoice at the prospect of such a result. Such 
vast possessions are of no benefit to us as a na- 
tion. And on the other hand, if the rights of 
man were sure hereafter to be maintained in 
any event on those distant shores, as fully at 
least as they are here, of vrhat consequence 
w^ould it be to the citizens of those future 
states to be united under our particular organi- 
zation. Some spirit other than the unselfish 
desire to extend tlie area of freedom must 
surely have j)rompted to this acquisition. 

The day is passing away we trust, in v/hich 
nations sock their gain in each other's loss. 
Who can doubt that a sister republic in that 
distant region, knit to us by blood and by so- 
cial and political fellowship, would be so also 
by the bonds of peace and national attach- 
ment? Who can doubt that harmony and 
friendship would be borne from one to another 



136 EEVIEW OF THE 



on tlie cuiTents of their waters, that the iron 
hands which would unite their cities would 
bind their hearts to eacli other also, and that 
s}Tnpathies and thoughts would dart together 
over the network of their electric nerves? 
Who can doubt that while each would pursue 
its own domestic policy, a noble confidence 
and generosity would mark their intercourse, 
rejoicing in each other's welfare, and seeking 
each other's good. 

But we can no more pretend to have attain- 
ed to social and political than to individual 
perfection. Many are conscious that we are as 
yet very far from that end, and that our institu- 
tions, though the best undoubtedly that the 
world has ever seen, are but the imperfect 
work of imperfect beings. We can hardly 
suppose that the freemen of that region, with 
the light of our experience to guide them, 
would fail to improve ujjon our example. We 
say then, that if the acquisition of this terri- 
tory is the only benefit attributable to the 
Mexican war, it has been productive of no good 
whatever. 

But if this war was wrong in its beginning 
and continuance, the most splendid results, the 



MEXICAN WAR. 137 



greatest blessings following in its train would 
not cBange its character in tlie least. Ttougli 
its effect had been to consecrate that region to 
freedom, and though without its agency, as far 
as human understanding can discover, it would 
have been doomed to despotism, these conse- 
quences would afford no extenuation of its 
criminality. As w^e read in all the events of 
history that there is a power above us, who, 
by an ordained and inevitable chain of causes 
and effects punishes national sins by national 
calamities, how can we dare to hope, that we 
or our children shall enjoy that of w^hich we 
have despoiled another ? How can we expect 
but that this ill gotten possession will prove a 
curse to embitter our peace and to sap the 
foundations of our national prosperity. 



138 REVIEW OF THE 



CHAPTER XII 



The Evils attending the War. Its Expense. Its Loss of Life — in 
battle — by disease. 

We have ^dewed the meager credit of this 
war ; let us now examine its debtor side in its 
account with humanity. 

It is estimated that the war will have cost 
the United States, including the price paid for 
the ceded territory and when arrears are liqui- 
dated and pensions fully paid, at least one hun- 
dred millions of dollars. This is so much capi- 
tal w^hich has been accumulated by the indus- 
try and enterprize of the citizens of the Uni- 
ted States almost entirely destroyed, as if it 
had been consumed in some vast conflagration. 
We say almost, because some part yet remains 
in permanent articles, useless however except 
for other wars, and some in the profits of con- 
tractors; but this amount is comparatively 



MEXICAN WAR. 139 



very small. It is difficult for the mind to form 
an idea of so large a sum. According to Mr. 
Gallatin, it is equal to the aggregate value of 
.all the buildings in the city of Nevv-York, ex- 
cludino^ the nominal value of the lots. The 
entire ]3opulation of the United States is now 
about twenty millions. The sum thus wasted 
is then live dollars taken from every man, wo- 
man and child in the country. The number 
of voters in the United States does not vary 
much from three millions. This wickedness 
then has taken over thirty-three dollars from 
every voter in the land and destroyed it. 

This sum judiciously expended would have 
made the most perfect and durable improve- 
ments in every river and harbor throughout 
the country ; the blessing of which to com- 
merce, and to large classes of our fellow citi- 
zens whose lives and property are exposed on 
our inland waters, it is not possible to estimate. 
A tenth part of this amount expended in the 
cause of science would have been a self-re- 
warding munificence, wdiich spendthrifts are 
always too poor to exercise. 

This sum would have established two hun- 
di-ed institutions of learning in the United 



140 REVIEW OK THE 



States, with endowments of half a million of 
dollars each, or four hundred with endowments 
of a quarter of a million each, suflicient to 
have furnished the best education, that noblest 
gift of one generation to another, gratuitously 
to two hundred thousand youth of our coun- 
try every year forever. It was demonstrated 
in the senate of the United States, that one 
half of the expenses of this war, if invested in 
six per cent stocks, and the interest arising 
from it applied to the carrying out of a gradual 
and feasible system of colonization, would in 
fifty yeai's exterminate the curse of negro 
slavery from our soil. 

The wealth of the United States has been 
created almost entirely by the labor and enter- 
prize of their citizens. The rapid increase and 
diffusion of our j3eople have required that the 
capital which they have created should be con- 
verted into many other forms of more imme- 
diate necessity than money ; as for instance, 
into buildings and the varied instruments of 
production. These wants of a state must be 
first supplied, before its circulating and availa- 
ble wealth can become abundant. In our more 
newly settled states, the wealth of the citizens 



MEXICAN WAR. 141 



consists almost entirely in tlieir farms and 
stock, houses and sliops and tools and imple- 
ments, while money is often hardly to be found. 
In the older parts of the country the case is 
difierent to a great extent, but even in our 
great mercantile cities the amount of circula- 
ting capital is no more than is necessary for the 
ordinary transaction of business. Wealth 
does not lie idle and unproductive, seeking in 
vain for investment ; but all is needed and em- 
ployed in the growing commercial and manu- 
facturing transactions of the country. Gov- 
ernment loans have been taken mostly in this 
country, and it is from this circulating capital 
exclusively that this vast amount has been 
drawn ; and this in addition to the sum neces- 
sary for the regular administration of the gov- 
ernment. Although foreign causes of an un- 
happy nature contributed to make this exaction 
less severely felt at first than it would have been 
under ordinary circumstances, still every de- 
partment of business throughout our country 
has been crippled, and has endured a needless 
suffering for the want of money. This fact is 
best evidenced to those who are not familiar 
with commercial and manufacturing operations, 



142 REVIEW*OF THE 



by tlie enormous rates of interest wliicli capi- 
tal commanded for a long time during and af- 
ter the war, even in our commercial cities, 
reaching often from twelve to eighteen per cent, 
on long: loans, and sometimes to three and even 
four per cent, a month on shorter time. It is 
trueth at the unexampled energy of our people 
is rapidly recovering from the blow, and re- 
producing their wasted capital. But the 
wrong to them does not depend on their ability 
to recover from its effects. 

The capital thus squandered is by far the 
smallest part of the pecuniary loss which this 
war has occasioned to our country. Upwards 
of one hundred thousand men were employed 
in various capacities in its prosecution. Sup- 
posing that each of these lost on the average, a 
year and a half, the value of their labor du- 
ring that time reckoned at seventy-five cents 
a day, would have been thirty-three million 
dollars. If we lost, as we doubtless did, thirty 
thousand lives, and each life was shortened 
twenty years, this would make at the same rate 
a loss of one hundred and forty million dol- 
lars. And here we have a loss of more than one 
hundred and seventy million dollars in produc- 



MEXICAN WAR. 143 



tive labor alone by tlie war. Thus this wrong 
has prevented the production of this vast 
amount of wealth, which our country would 
otherwise have come to possess. 

We have resting upon us also an enormous 
public debt. On this the interest must be paid 
annually, and it will be the duty of govern^ 
ment to extinguish the principal as rapidly as 
possible. To effect this it is probable that it 
will become necessary to impose duties on 
some articles now generally esteemed necessa- 
ries of life, and to increase those already laid 
on others, and that for many years j)ublic un- 
dertakings of vital importance to many por- 
tions of our citizens and of interest to all, will 
necessarily be suspended. 

But the destruction of the wealth, the injury 
to the production and the neglect of the peace- 
ful interests of our country, are the least of 
the evils resulting from this conquest. There 
were fought during the w^ar about thirty bat- 
tles attended with great suffering and loss of 
life. This to our troops however, was but light 
indeed compared with the frightful ravages of 
disease. One of the Indiana regiments which 
left its native state a thousand strong, and 



144 REVIE^ OF THE 



wliicli never saw a battle, returned at tlie close 
of the war witli less than four hundred m its 
wasted ranks. When General Childs took 
command of the garrison at Jalapa, eighteen 
hundred men lay sick in our hospitals in that 
city. At the city of Mexico, the deaths among 
our troops Avere much of the time one thousand 
monthly. On a parade when a certain com- 
pany was called which had numbered over one 
hundred men, a single private answered to the 
call, its sole living representative. Around 
the castle of Perote alone, are three thousand 
graves of soldiers who perished by disease. 
They lie in that great burial place. Some in 
the excitement of battle fell instantly dead by 
some almost unfelt blow ; others perished uu- 
der a multitude of wounds ; others still expir- 
ed after hours, or days, or weeks of agonizing 
torment. Many thousands thirsting for dis- 
tinction, who had left their homes with high 
hopes of glory on the battle field, sunk under 
the malignant pestilence, while thousands more 
dragged home their disfigured bodies, or re- 
turned to carry with them through life shat- 
tered constitutions and disease, or to hasten to 
their graves. 



MEXICAN WAR. ^ X45 



If there is a time above all others when the 
heart yearns for the presence of affection, when 
its voice falls like music on the ear, when the 
tender ministry of those we love is felt to be 
O ! how precious, and when its absence wrings 
the heart with the bitter pang of desolation, 
it is when we lie on the bed of suffering and 
feel the approach of death. 

While we mourn for our own countrymen 
who fell victims to conquest, let us not forget 
those who fought against us, sacrificed by our 
wdckedness. Even defenceless women and 
children did not always escape the horrors of 
the war. At the storming of Monterey, a young 
Mexican girl w^as seen carrying water to the 
wounded of both armies. The battle thicken- 
ed around lier, but with a heroic devotion she 
continued her pious ministry. As she hasten- 
ed from one to another, binding up their 
w^ounds and allaying their intolerable thirst, 
she seemed some angel of mercy amid the 
scene of carnage, w^hen a cannon ball snatched 
away her gentle spirit, and her life-blood flow- 
ed mingling with the water she had brought. 

But who shall paint the agony of those who 

mourn a son, a father, a husband, a brother, 

5* 



X46 REVIEW OF THE 

wlio can never return ? To liow many did tlie 
news of peace bring a joyful anticipation, 
doomed to darken into disappointment and 
despair. "Where is tlie indemnity tliat shall 
atone for crushed affections ? What ]Drice can 
pay for the lost treasures of the heart ? It is 
a terrible responsibility to have added a mite 
to human suffering. By what great necessity 
can this war be justified ? 



MEXICAN WAR. j^j- 



CHAPTER XIII 



The Duty of the United States toward other nations enhanced by her 
position. Her duty to Mexico in particular. These duties violated 
by this War. 

We sliall now examine the duty and true 
ambition and glory of the United States, and 
show the consequences of this violation of 
that duty upon the character of our peo- 
ple, and on the cause of religion and of free- 
dom in our own land, and throughout the 
world . 

It is a matter of doubt among many, wheth- 
er impartial justice ought ever to be expected 
from a state, seeking its own interest and ame- 
nable to no law This doubt appears well 
warranted by history, but no sound distinction 
can be drawn in morals between public and 
private obligation. A state is an ideal being. 
It does not act, it possesses no responsibility. 
It exists only in contemplation. What are 



X48 REVIEW* OF THE 

commonly called acts of tlie state are the acts 
of individuals. 

The law of right and wrong is the ultima 
Q^atio of human action. It is the duty of man 
to do whatever the moral law declares to be 
right, and to refrain from doing what it de- 
clares to be wrong ; and this for the single rea- 
son that one is right and the other wrong. 
, To whatever office in the vast machinery of 
government a man may be called, whether it 
be to legislate or to administer the laws, he is 
bound to obey in that, as in every other situa- 
tion, the same law of right. An individual ac- 
countability inseparable from his existence 
rests upon him still. 

Is one a legislator, and through prejudice or 
passion or excitement, fails to raise his voice 
against injustice and wrong, or seeks not with 
an enlarged humanity the welfare of his race ; 
is he a minister, and do selfishness and ambition 
mark his counsels ; does he hold the highest 
authority of the land and direct in any re- 
S23ect the conduct of his country, and is not 
the good of all mankind his supreme desire — do 
not justice, mercy and peace guide his steps — 
does resentment ever drive away forgiveness 



MEXICAN WAR, 149 



from him ; is lie a private citizen living in a 
land of individual influence, and lias he ever 
raised his voice to require or approve at the 
hands of his government any but just and gen- 
erous measures, his is the individual wrong. 

There is not one law of duty to govern the 
conduct of men in private and another in pub- 
lic relations. There is no such thing as collec- 
tive responsibility. 

There are, moreover, many things which in- 
crease the responsibility of those engaged in 
the direction of public affairs. The w^rongs 
w^hich men commit in an official capacity ad- 
mit often of no redress. There exists no pow- 
er to enforce in legislatures or sovereigns obe- 
dience to justice. Their acts become, also, 
justifying precedents to those who follow them ; 
for men too often derive their notions of right 
from wrongs which time has rendered venera- 
ble. They possess, besides, far larger opportu- 
nity of promoting the good, or increasing the 
misery of mankind. The consequences of 
their actions must be immeasurably greater 
than can follow those of any private citizen. 

Governments sustain a twofold relation. 
They stand in the position of individuals 



150 REVIE\f OF THE 



among other governments, and hence arise the 
same duties which devolve upon man in his in- 
tercourse with his fellow man. They are also 
the constituted protectors of their people, the 
guardianship of whose rights and interests is 
committed to their care. 

Revelation supplying the imperfect teachings 
of conscience, presents to us its simple and 
sublime precepts, to govern the conduct of na- 
tion with nation, as well as that of man with 
man. 

The institutions and precepts of men bear 
within them the evidence of their own falli- 
bility and of the imperfection of theii' authors. 
Every race and every age is governed by those 
peculiar to itself, and often differing from each 
other as widely as do the habits and characters 
of men. The laws of one people are unconge- 
nial with the dispositions, and unadapted to 
the wants of another. They change, moreo- 
ver, with every passmg generation. While 
they operate to mould society to some extent, 
they themselves in turn are moulded by it. 
The institutions and customs of one age are 
often too barbarous or too refined to suit the 
succeeding one. The laws of om* fathers, so 



MEXICAN WAR. 151 

far as they are merely the work of the human 
intellect, become obsolete, and pass away with 
the state of society out of w^hich they grew, 
and to which they were adapted ; giving place 
to others, which at some future day perhaps 
will themselves be sought for only by the cu- 
rious. The teachings of Christianity when 
placed side by side with these, present a re- 
markable contrast. So simple that the mind 
of a child can comprehend it, so profound 
that the sage is never satisfied with its contem- 
plation, applying to the minutest act, embra- 
cing in its comprehension all the affairs in 
which men can engage, adapted alike to every 
age of time, and to every circumstance and 
condition of man, the source of all that is good 
or durable in human institutions, so suited to 
the nature of our being, that happiness follows 
^ur obedience, and unhappiness our disobedi- 
ence to its every dictate, the moral law stands 
alone, perfect and eternal, a part of the great 
unity of being, and revealing in its author the 
same infinite One who fashioned the natm^e and 
the soul of man. 

This law must possess supreme authority 
over nations as well as individuals, and all hu- 



152 REVIEW OF THE 

man institutions should be founded upon it. 
The laws of nations are conventional. Obedi- 
ence to them is entirely voluntary. Their au- 
thority should most of all, for this reason, be 
tested by the principles of the moral law, and 
usages should be disregarded, however sanc- 
tioned by authority or hallowed by age, which 
are not in conformity with its spirit. 

It would be a work of supererogation to en- 
ter further into an examination of the princi- 
ples which should govern the conduct of na- 
tions generally. These need only to be stated. 
The mind assents to them instinctively. They 
are moral axioms. 

We shall in the following observations con- 
fine our view to the United States, and show 
how their obligations are heightened by their 
peculiar position. 

We stand upon a political and moral emi- 
nence. Our government is undoubtedly the 
greatest and most prosperous republic that has 
ever existed, and we have attained a high rank 
among enlightened and virtuous nations. We 
are as it were, pioneers in political freedom 
and in individual elevation ; and we have ac- 
quired an influence in the affairs of the world 



MEXICAN WAR. 153 



and over tlie thouglits of men, unprecedented 
in so brief a j)eriod. We are moreover re- 
moved beyond the entanglements of European 
politics, are unfettered by tlie precedents and 
usages by wlucli the action of those states is 
so greatly controlled, and are but little effected 
either by their struggles or their diplomacy. 
"We have no reasons of state opposed to the 
dictates of morality. 

It would seem as if we were called upon by 
the possession of many advantages denied in 
the same degree to others, to exalt the stand- 
ard of national morality. It would appear 
that we should not be contented in our inter- 
course with other nations to follow the princi- 
ples by which monarchies were guided in a ru- 
der age, to pay our blind homage to usages 
originating in, and adapted to a less enlighten- 
ed time, and to aim only to square our conduct 
with these imperfect standards. " We have 
been raised up," says a distinguished states- 
man, "for high and noble purposes." We 
should seek to realize and to accomplish our 
mission. 

Justice does not consist merely in conformi- 
ty with the usages, or obedience to the regula- 



154 REVIlfW OF THE 

tions of society. He whose Mgliest principle 
is to diive no closer a bargain with his neigh- 
bor than is tolerated by the laws, is among the 
most contemptible of men. "We should strive 
in onr intercourse with other nations, to be ac- 
tuated by a love of right and by a noble gen- 
erosity ; to have our actions inspired, as it were, 
with the spirit of equity. " Although the 
hazard of transient losses," said a late pure 
minded statesman, " may be incurred by a 
rigid adherence to just principles, no lasting 
prosperity can be secured when they are disre- 
garded." It is so difficult for nations to be 
just, their actions are so entirely beyond con- 
trol, and such is the blinding influence of in- 
terest, that we should set our standard of na- 
tional conduct peculiarly high, conscious of the 
obstacles in the way of its attainment. 

Nearly a century before the multitude in 
Gallilee listened to the sermon on the mount, 
the Roman orator uttered the sentiment 
which we have placed at the head of this es- 
say. The most TOtuous character of antiquity, 
his writings contain 23erhaps the noblest unin- 
spired precepts which were ever taught to 
man. 



MEXICAN WAR. 155 



" Not only," lie says, " is that declaration un- 
true wMcli asserts that no republic can be gov- 
erned without injustice, but this is most true, 
that without the highest justice no republic 
can be guided to permanent prosperity." The 
word ^^ justitia'''' is very comprehensive and 
cannot be rendered into English by any single 
expression. It embraces the several ideas of 
clemency, humanity and magnanimity, the very 
spirit of justice. 

These words possess weighty import and 
solemn association. They v^^ere prophetic of 
the downfall of Rome. They come to us with 
awful warning from the portals of the tomb in 
which her liberties w^ere buried. 

"The mission of the United States," says 
one of their best citizens, " is one of peace, of 
love and of good will to men." To elevate 
the human race, by exalting the standard of 
individual intelligence and virtue, to still the 
storms of human passion, to inculcate the prin- 
ciples of equality, fraternity and peace among 
men, these should be the objects of our ambi- 
tion, to set their example before the world, 
this is our true glory. While other nations 
might boast of their victories, we could then 



156 REVIEW OF THE 

feel tliat we liad conquered ignorance, we had 
conquered ^Hice, we had conquered ourselves. 
There is a glory purer than that which is shroud- 
ed in the smoke of the battle-field, it illumines 
the path of peace ; there is a serener light 
than beams from the cannon's mouth, it plays 
around the head of wtue. 

Wars unhappily become sometimes necessa- 
ry. "The most sacred regard for justice and 
equity," says Mr. Calhoun, " and the most cau- 
tious policy, cannot always prevent them." 
Governments must sometimes defend by force 
the rights of their people. Some principle 
dearer than life may be invaded, wrongs 
may be committed which it would be ignoble 
to suffer and which force alone can prevent. 
Here the crime is with the aggressor. But 
it is a vast responsibility to determine up- 
on a war; and justice, humanity and every 
precept of religion teach us, that it should only 
be done under a controlling necessity, and when 
every other means of security have been ex- 
hausted in vain. 

Mexico is our sister republic. She has been 
aspiring to emulate our example, and endeav- 
oring, though with unequal steps, to follow in 



MEXICAN WAR. 157 



our path. She is moreover a weaker nation 
than the United States. Her government is 
feeble and distracted, her people are generally 
ignorant and devoid of enter]3rize. By the si- 
lent operation of natural causes, our race has 
been silently but resistlessly encroaching on 
the Spanish- American. It is evident that it 
must yield before our advance. It would be 
contrary to all our ideas to imagine Mexico ob- 
taining extensive trading privileges among our 
citizens, or acquiring in any manner possession 
of our territory. The tendency of things is 
all the other way. In every transaction we 
must be the gainer and she the loser. 'No 
blame attaches to us on this account. It is a 
fact whose cause lies beyond the reach of any 
political policy. 

But while it is our duty to cultivate with all 
nations the relations of friendship, to exercise 
that regard for the rights of others, which is 
the best security for our own, and to exhibit 
that magnanimity w^hich is the foundation of 
the highest respect ; these circumstances would 
seem to require that our conduct toward Mex- 
ico should have been marked by an extraordi- 
nary forbearance and kindness. Surely we 



158 REVIEW OF THE 

— — ^■^— "— ^^— — I I ' I II 11^^— ««p«— ^——i— — , 

should bear -with the pride or tlie jealousy of 
a feebler nation, whicli is conscious of our 
growth, at her expense, from causes beyond 
her power as well as our own to control, and 
pointing to consequences which she can only 
deprecate, but can neither avert nor stay. 

" I trust," said Mr. Calhoun, in March, 1846, 
" that we shall deal generously with Mexico, 
that w^e shall prove ourselves too magnani- 
mous and too just to take advantage of her 
feeble condition." We cannot resist quoting 
a few words from the remarks made by a sen- 
ator from Kentucky, on the receipt of the war 
message from the executive, because they con- 
tain true and noble sentiments, wmich could 
hardly be so well expressed in other language. 

" From the first struggle for liberty in South 
America and Mexico," says he, "it was the 
cherished policy of the United States to ex- 
tend to those republics sympathy and friend- 
ship. 

'' We had regarded their rising as an imita- 
tion of our example — as a new creation of re- 
publics united by strong affinity and warm 
sympathy. That was the kind and generous 
view taken. As the head of the republican 



MEXICAN WAR. 159 



system, our policy was to cheer and clierisli 
them, and lead tliem in tlie way to tli at liber- 
ty whicli we had established, and of which 
we had set the example. Now we find our- 
selves in a state of war with one of these re- 
publics. We, that should naturally be looked 
up to as the protector of them all. These 
generous dispositions are all vanished, and 
war and bloodshed have taken their place. 
It is not in the amount of precious blood that 
has been shed, that the importance of this 
event consists. No, it is the great political 
consequences, the evil example to liberty in 
every place. The hand of one republic is 
stretched out in hostility against another! 
And I deprecate it the more when I reflect, 
that the one is feeble and impotent, that an- 
archy and revolutions have consumed her 
strength, and that she needs the force of our 
example and aid to sustain her, lest she fall 
back again into that monarchy from which 
we saw her with pleasure arise. The course 
that has been pursued cannot have been that 
generous and forbearing policy which ought 
to be exercised by this great republic. We 



160 REVIEW OF THE 

are so mucli miglitier than they are, that our 
condescension would be noble." 

In the war which we have examined, we see 
all these princij)les entirely disregarded. Im- 
pelled by a lust of conquest, the United States 
have exhibited in it a spirit of injustice, ag- 
gression and violence. The war which they 
have waged has been for the redress of no 
vsTong, for the vindication of no human right. 
No principle of humanity is claimed to have 
been maintained by its factories. Nor are we 
entitled to any respect for the peace which fol- 
lowed. The same remorseless selfishness in- 
spired alike its beginning, its continuance and 
its end. 

Without a cause worthy of a civilized na- 
tion, or an object the hope of whose attain- 
ment could inspire devotion, its history does 
not present a single circumstance which can ex- 
cuse or palliate its unmitigated wrong. Pos- 
sessing no pretence of any moral aim, utterly 
at variance with every object for which the 
heart of this age has sympathy, men must gaze 
upon it only in sorrow, unillumined by a ray 
of faith or hope. 



MEXICAN WAR. JgJ 



CHAPTER XIV 



The Influence of this War upon our national character, and on the cause 
of Liberty and of Christianity at home and abroad. It has intro- 
duced crime and vice among us. It has awakened a spirit of con- 
quest. It has lowered the standard of public morality in our coun- 
try. 

The evil impulses of our nature constitute 
a law of selfishness, wliicli prompts man to 
seek Ms own interest or gratification, regard- 
less of tlie happiness or rights of others, and 
of hatred which impels him to seek the posi- 
tive evil of his fellow men. Of all the un- 
happy consequences which attend the exer- 
cise of selfish or hateful passions, the most cer- 
tain and terrible are those which revert upon 
the character of their possessor. These seem 
to follow their indulgence by a fixed and eter- 
nal moral law, in the same manner that cer- 
tain effects follow certain causes in the material 
world; by a necessity of the same nature as 
that by which the felled tree falls to the 
6 



162 REVIEW OF THE 



ground, or the parts of a revolving body tend 
jfrom their center. They are the parents 
of fear, of suspicion, of envy and unsatisfied 
desires. As the mind j)asses under their sub- 
jection, every generous voice is hushed, every 
noble prompting is stilled within it, its fac- 
ulty of distinguishing right and wrong becomes 
deadened and distorted, and it looses the capa- 
city for participating in the happiness of vir- 
tue. 

We would expect to find the evil consequen- 
ces of this great national wrong which revert 
upon the character of our people, on the cause 
of free governments, and on the interests of 
morality and religion, insidious in their nature, 
to be far more unhappy, as they are more en- 
during, than any others w^hich can attend or 
follow it. So indeed they are. 

This w^ar has introduced crime and vice 
among us. A camp is the notorious home of 
unbridled passions. Soldiers in a foreign coun- 
try feel that they are removed from all the re- 
straints of civil law, and whenever the bar- 
rier of military discipline can be passed, un- 
restrained indulgence is sure to be sought. 
'So one can know, until he has witnessed it, 



MEXICAN WAR. 163 



the hardening influence of war npon tlie char- 
acters of those who are engaged in it. He, 
who Tinder the name of glory can coolly blow 
out the brains of his fellow man, or urge a 
bayonet into his bosom, has taken a lesson in 
blood, the effects of which he has rarely the 
ability or disposition to shake off. When the 
heart has become regardless of human misery, 
when it is steeled against the cry of agony and 
the prayer for life, it is also proof against the 
entrance of most noble sentiments and eleva- 
ting impulses. Soldiers are commonly drawn, 
from that class of society who most need the 
checks of civil law\ Having been removed 
from its authority for a time, it is difficult for 
them to assume again the character of peacea- 
ble citizens. Martial law no longer holding 
them in restraint, they are too apt to feel a 
spii'it of reckless defiance. And this inhu- 
manity and lawlessness are scattered over the 
land. Its breath is infection, its touch is con- 
tagion. It breeds a moral miasma in every 
community which comes within its influence. 

This war has excited and encouraged among 
our people the spirit of conquest in which it 
had its origin. It is difficult for a people, as 



154 REVi:Sw OF THE 

for an individual, to be convinced that their 
own desires and actions are uuliallowed and 
unjust. Vice is tlie most cunning of flatter- 
ers. It lulls its victim to security with, a song 
of his own virtue and inability to err, while it 
holds its temptation before him under the veil 
of some excellent or glorious name. Desire 
harbored for a moment, invents a thousand 
plausible excuses for its gratification, until we 
are convinced that its indulgence is hardly in- 
consistent with the severest morality. Array- 
ed in the garments of virtue, vice often dares to 
appeal even to our sense of duty, and we strive 
to believe that we should be guilty of wrong 
in refusing to obey its impulses. 

But if we ever free ourselves from the de- 
ceiver, we shall find that as far as we have fol- 
lowed it, just so far every moral sense has be- 
come deadened within us, and virtue herself 
has lost her beauty in our eyes. 

Let us not attempt to deceive ourselves. 
The lust of conquest has begun to rage among 
ns. It is called "makiDg room for the Anglo- 
Saxon race," " working out our manifest desti- 
ny," and " enlarging the area of freedom." It 
has assumed a garb of the noblest humanity, 



MEXICAN WAR. 165 



and has covered its face witli a mask of 
wonderful virtue. But it is the spirit of con- 
quest still. It is nothing else but the selfish de- 
sire to possess that which belongs to another, 
and a recklessness of the means by which it 
may be obtained. Let us reason together, 
candid reader, whether this is so. 

Does our race need room ? The area of our 
country before the war was about eighteen 
hundred thousand square miles, capable of sus- 
taining a population of at least three hundred 
million souls. This is a moderate estimate. 
Its capacity is probably much greater. Vast 
regions of this country are as yet almost unex- 
plored. We are barely twenty millions scat- 
tered over a part of its surface. 

But it is our duty we are told to provide for 
posterity. Should our population continue to 
double once in thirty years as it is now doing, 
in one hundred and twenty years we should 
reach three hundred and twenty millions. But 
any one who reasons upon this basis will fall 
into a great mistake. Of course, were this 
reasoning correct, in thirty years from that 
time we should number six hundred millions, 
more than the continent would probably sup- 



166 REVIEW OF THE 

port, and in another sliort thirty years we 
should be double that number, or more by one- 
third than the number of inhabitants now on 
the globe. It is more probable that in ^ye 
hundred years this comitry will hardly con- 
tain three hundi^ed million souls. It is a law 
of population, that as a people become dense 
they multiply more slowly, until at last the in- 
crease is scarcely perceptible, as in China. No 
one imagines that the population of the globe 
mil in sixty years have increased foui^fold. The 
earth could not sustain such swarms, and ere 
long men would perish of universal starvation. 
We have heretofore increased rapidly, because 
we were a young people, scattered over a great 
and attractive country. Probably the early 
colonists on our coasts often doubled their 
numbers in a few months. How does this mist^ 
in which a spirit of selfish aggrandizement has 
shrouded itself, fade away before the sunlight 
of truth. 

But it is truly said that it is our duty to pro- 
vide for posterity. The provision which wf^ 
should make for them should not be vast regions 
of the earth which they will not need, and which 
must be acquired by injustice and wrong. 



MEXICAN WAR. 1^7 



We sliould bequeath to tliem an unsullied 
national character. Our conduct must be the 
example for their imitation. Happy would 
that people be which could look back over 
their history through a long succession of just 
and generous actions which their fathers had 
performed, all whose precedents had tended to 
elevate while they adorned humanity. We 
should provide for them a higher intellec- 
tual culture than has been bestowed upon us, 
and should develope in them a more exalted 
moral character than as a nation we now pos- 
sess. These would constitute the greatest 
wealth, the most glorious inheritance that pos- 
terity could receive at our hands. 

In our own proper heritage are exhaustless 
resources yet to be developed. Far above us 
is a civilization yet to be attained, a standard 
of national character yet to be striven after. 
There lie the true objects of our ambition, in 
their attainment consists our true glory. Thus 
should we be working out truly our manifest 
destiny ; this would be indeed enlarging the 
area of freedom. 

The United States appear to have acted on 
the assumption that they possess some divine 



1%<Q revieJV of the 

right to whatever is most valuable on this con- 
tinent, especially if it belongs to a weaker pow- 
er. For instance, it was urged in congress be- 
fore the war, that we must obtain possession 
of the harbor of San Francisco. It was not 
claimed that we had any title to it whatever, 
it was acknowledged to be an undisputed 
possession of Mexico. But it was said, it is 
the best harbor on the Pacific. And were 
not the rights of Mexico sacred ? The feel- 
ing in this country seems to be, we will 
willingly foster that young republic, but she 
must learn to be satisfied with those posses- 
sions which we do not want. If she is so un- 
reasonable as to oppose our wishes, we must 
obtain what we desire by force, and punish such 
unheard of presumption. 

But do not let us flatter ourselves that 
the high sounding appellations which have 
been employed to tickle the ears of this peo- 
ple while selfish ambition was obtaining domin- 
ion over their hearts, are original with us. 
They have been the themes of every conquer- 
or, both king and republic, since the world be- 
gan. There never lived a scourge of the hu- 
man race who confessed himself a villain. All 



MEXICAN WAR 169 



have been in turn persuaded that the submis- 
sion of nations to their rule was necessary for 
their own good, that they had been sent on a 
mission of mercy to suffering humanity. 

Alexander and Caesar, Attila and Tamer- 
lane, all felt the necessity of room for their re- 
spective races, and were doubtless filled with a 
desire to work out their manifest destiny, and 
enlarge the area of freedom. Napoleon was 
the very self-styled child of destiny. 

This war has encouraged in the minds of our 
countrymen the desire of military glory for its 
own sake. It has tended to dissatisfy them 
with the comparatively noiseless pursuits of 
peace, and has created a longing for the excite- 
ment of battle, and the applause which fol- 
lows victory. 

A prominent supporter of the war declared 
in the United States senate, that " Europe had 
almost forgotten us, until our battles on the Rio 
Grande woke her up." "We had been peopling 
a wilderness and developing its exhaustless re- 
sources, digging canals and building railroads, 
thousands of keels were plowing our inland 
waters, we were sending thought instantaneous- 
ly to every extremity of the land, our commerce 



170 REVIEW OF THE 



had become tlie second on tlie globe, we were 
triumpbantly teacliing and developing tlie 
great principles of freedom, our country was 
smiling in tlie dawn of universal education. 
And could statesmen be found among us fo- 
menting discontent, because we did not attract 
sufficiently the gaze of Europe ? Must we en- 
gage in an accursed wrong for tbe sake of no- 
toriety ? 

And again it was''declared by tlie same sen- 
ator : "Let modern pliilanthropists talk as 
tbey will, tlie instincts of nature are truer than 
tlie doctrines tbey preacb. Military renown is 
one of tbe great elements of national strength, 
as it is one of the proudest sources of gratifica- 
tion to every man who loves Ms country." 

This declaration is worthy of the cause in 
support of which it was uttered. Its morality 
deserves our esj)ecial attention. The teach- 
ings of Christianity are passed by unnoticed. 
The fundamental principles of moral science 
are entirely lost sight of. By a figure of 
speech similar to that by which national rob- 
bery is softened into manifest destiny, the wick- 
ed passions of man are exalted to " instincts of 
nature," and before this modern Baal the free- 



MEXICAN WAR. 171 



men of America are called upon to bow, and 
offer to it their blind adoration. A citizen 
standing in a higli place before tMs country 
thus teaclies Ms fellow countrymen to abandon 
every otlier principle of action, and submit to 
the guidance of the instincts of nature. 

But irrespective of the character of the war, 
the facts of having woke Europe up, and of hav- 
ing obtained a military renown, are presented 
as sufficient reasons why we should be gratified 
with it. If w@ had gained nothing else, say 
its supporters, these should constitute a source 
of exultation. Now we submit that no re- 
sult of a war can be a sufficient cause of ex- 
ultation, the prospect of whose attainment 
w^ould not be a sufficient reason for under- 
taking a war. Then the hope of military re- 
nown is a sufficient reason to induce a civilized 
nation to commence a war ; a doctrine abhor- 
rent to the common sense of humanity. 

Whenever men are gratified with a bargain 
they are in the same proportion eager to make 
a similar one. If it is considered that milita- 
ry renown and the satisfaction of having woke 
Europe up, have been cheaply purchased by 
the war, and that this result is so much in our 



• 



J72 REVIEW OF THE 



favor that it affords matter for congratulation, 
the desire must follow to purchase the same 
advantage so cheaply again. It is impossible 
that a nation can be gratified with an unjust 
war or conquest, without having its appetite 
sharpened for another. Appetite indulged is 
appetite unchained. 

Every desire of the heart which it is right 
to gratify at all, it is right to gratify for the 
mere enjoyment which its gratification affords. 
Desires are not to be judged of by the effects 
of their gratification. They are innocent or 
vicious in themselves, and if their indulgence 
is proper at all, they may be indulged for their 
own sake. 

Now no one will contend that the desire for 
military glory may be indulged for its own 
sake, that it is right to gratify this " instinct of 
nature" merely for the pleasure that attends 
its gratification. No, this is the doctrine for 
the practice of which w^e call men savages. 
Civilized nations do not, dare not go to war for 
the mere delight of fighting. There never liv- 
ed a conqueror who dared to avow his passion 
for blood, or who did not seek to cloak his im- 
pulses under a garb of humanity. Therefore, 



MEXICAN WAR. X73 



as the gratification of tliis desire for its own 
sake is pronounced infamous by the common 
consent of mankind, we class the desire itself 
among the unhallowed passions of the breast, 
whose exercise must be a source of evil to the 
human race, and whose indulgence and cultiva- 
tion christian philanthropists should unite to 
condemn, and christian governments should 
labor to avoid. 

The nation which rejoices over a victory 
won in a doubtful cause, just so far indulges 
and cultivates a love of war for its own sake. 

If war is waged in support of some great 
principle of freedom, for the vindication of the 
rights of man, it is fit that we watch its pro- 
gress with interest, and that we rejoice over its 
success. Love for our race bids us be glad in 
the faith that this trampled and bruised body 
of humanity will be raised up and healed. So 
if a treason against the government is discov- 
ered and its actors are condemned and execu- 
ted, we rejoice at the preservation of the 
state. But while we acknowledge the justice 
of the punishment, we sympathize with the 
unhappy beings who must suffer the penalty 
of the law, and lament the necessity that die- 



174 REVIEW OF THE 

tates their doom. Wliile tlien we exult at the 
triumphs of humanity, and indulge in the cheer- 
ing prospect of the elevation of our race, our 
joy should be saddened by the remembrance 
of the evil and suffering through which this 
good must be obtained, and which the sternest 
necessity alone is sufficient to justify. But 
when war itself is sought for, irrespective of 
any good which it may subserve, when victo- 
ries are themes of rejoicing to men, careless of 
the cause in which they were won, it is like 
the idle multitude indulging their passion for 
human suffering in the sight of an execution, 
careless whether the victim has been justly or 
unjustly condemned, thoughtless whether jus- 
tice and the laws are sustained or disregarded. 
O ! how devoid of love for his race is that man, 
and how perverted and degraded is his moral 
sense, who regardless of its suffering, its evil 
and its awful wrong, can rejoice and exult over 
a battle, merely because his own nation has 
shown her physical superiority over another. 
How contemptible does this spirit become, 
when it glories over the overthrow of a foe far 
weaker than ourselves, even like an infant in 
our grasp. Is there no higher national ambi- 



MEXICAN WAR. 175 



tion than this ? Is ttere no better, no nobler 
glory for a people than supremacy on the bat- 
tle field? Ah, yes. True wisdom rejoices 
when battles are not fought, when victories are 
not won. It looks upon war as a terrible evil 
only to be justified as a last resort against op- 
pression and wrong, and w^hen not waged in 
the cause of freedom, with aU its magnificent 
pomp and circumstance, to be but murder, 
without the poor excuse of anger, that tempo- 
rary madness. 

The lust of concpest and the desire of war 
for its own sake, the most wicked passions which 
can enter the minds of a people are the great- 
est curses of any state, and most of all of a 
republic. 

Says Cicero, speaking in the imperial city, 
whose glory was in her conquests, and which 
had already attained the empire of the known 
world, ^' But if we would make a just estimate 
of the case, we should find both greater and 
more glorious actions done by wisdom at home, 
than by arms abroad." " IIa23py," says Mon- 
tesque, " is that people whose annals are tire- 
some." 

Wealth destroyed is quickly reproduced, 



• 



176 REVIEW OF THE 

there comes always an end to human suffering 
and sorrow, generations soon arise to fill the 
places of the dead. 

These are not the consequences of war over 
which mankind have had most cause to mourn. 
It deadens and degrades the moral sense of 
man, and destroys his perception of national 
and individual justice. He who sees no wrong 
in despoiling a weaker state of her possessions, 
is restrained only by the laws of his country 
and the frown of society from robbing his 
neighbor of his wealth. Evil propensities ex- 
hibit themselves the same under all circum- 
stances. There is no distinction between pub- 
lic and private virtues and vices. If the found- 
ations of justice are sapped, public and private 
principles are w^eakened alike. 

War has kindled and fanned the flame of 
human passion. It has tended powerfully to 
deaden the finer and nobler sentiments of 
the soul, to drive from the heart the feelings 
of humanity, and to destroy in man the im- 
pulse to love his fellow man. It has develop- 
ed and cultivated selfishness and hatred in all 
their forms. Impulses to evil, once excited, 
cannot be confined in their operation to the 



MEXICAN WAR. I77 



objects wMcIl aroused them. They become a 
part of the character, to be exhibited at all 
times, to be exercised under all circumstances. 
Peace is harmonious. Where it is destroyed 
among nations, it cannot exist in smaller com- 
munities, nor between man and man ; there is 
war even among the tenants of the same bo- 
som. 

These lusts have opposed morality by culti- 
vating every vice. They have been the dead- 
liest foes of Christianity, for they have awaken- 
ed every passion whose exercise its precepts 
forbid, and which its persuasions seek to still. 
They tend to deaden every impulse the culti- 
vation of which is the end of religion, and in 
the exercise of which consists the happiness of 
mankind. 

These desires for conquest and military glo- 
ry, in which this war had its origin and which 
it has encouraged, and whose gratification is 
the greatest crime which a nation can commit, 
not only have scattered immorality and vice 
among us, have tended to degrade our na- 
tional character, to destroy the sense of na- 
tional and individual justice, and develope 
evil passions among our people, and thus op- 



178 REVIEW OF THE 

posed tlie principles of claristiaiiity ; but they 
have impaired, more than any other influence 
can, the foundation of our liberties. The cause 
of freedom has no other foe so much to be 
dreaded, whose approach is no insidious, whose 
triumph is so sure. 

Liberty must be founded on equality and 
fraternity. It must be established in a com- 
mon sympathy, it must rest on a love of all 
mankind, or it can have no secure foundation. 
Perfect liberty can never exist without perfect 
fraternity, or unless the divine command is 
obeyed and every man love his neighbor as 
himself. Liberty then in its best form among 
men, must be imperfect, and whatever tends 
to stop or interrupt the current of sympathy 
between men, must tend to its destruction. 

Now selfishness, jealousy, anger and hatred, 
are not generally the consequences of external 
causes. They exist in the heart itself. Where 
they exist they are constantly seeking, and 
they rarely fail to discover opportunities for 
their exercise. In a republic like ours, it sure- 
ly becomes us to fear the consequences of their 
development and cultivation, by means such as 
these. We should tremble lest when there 



MEXICAN WAR. 179 



were no more conquests to be made, and no 
more foes to overcome, the same evil passions, 
now become a part of our national character, 
should seek their exercise in domestic commo- 
tion, should array the parts of our glorious 
Union in hostility against each other, and by 
their silent but resistless progress eifect the 
downfall of American liberty. 

Let us not feel that our liberties are so strong 
that no force can prevail against them. '' The 
sentinel may " not " sleep securely on his post." 
Imperfect man cannot guard too watchfully his 
imperfect work from ruin. " Best safety lies in 
fear." '^ Eternal vigilance is the price of liber- 
ty." We may fear no outward assault. We 
may liken ourselves to some proud cliff that 
overhangs the sea, and around whose base the 
billows dash and roar in vain, while it looks in 
towering grandeur on the wild war of waters 
beneath ; but if we guard not well the ap- 
proaches of this insidious foe, coming genera- 
tions may liken us to the same rock, in which 
the tiny insect had been laboring unseen, per- 
forating and weakening its foundation, until it 
could no longer sustain the overhanging brow, 
when suddenly the landmark which had gui- 



IQQ REVIEW OF THE 

ded the mariner to his port is swallowed up 
forever by the waves. The warrior who had 
fought all day in battle unharmed, whose ar- 
mor of proof had warded off every blow, and 
whose arm had vanquished every adversary, 
weary and faint lays himself down on the bat- 
tle field at night, and while he sleeps the still 
falling dew comes through the joints of his 
harness, its damp, deadening influence pervades 
every nerve and channel of his frame, and he 
awakes to disease, delirium and death. 

Let us take warning by republics that have 
ceased to be. It was no thunderbolt from 
Heaven that dashed their power in pieces. It 
was no earthquake that overthrew their cities. 
Their work of ages fell not in a day, nor did 
external force accomjDlish their destruction. 
It was the slow, certain moral consumption en- 
gendered by war and conquest, w^orking in ev- 
ery individual of those states, and decaying the 
foundations of their strensrth. Athenians, 
doubtless, loved their liberties as well as we ; 
but when public virtue is lost, when public jus- 
tice is disregarded, when no noble magnanimity 
is exhibited, and peace and the love of humani- 
ty are not cultivated by the state, they cannot 



MEXICAN WAR. IgJ 



long be found in the great mass of its citizens. 
Tliiis it was with Athens, and Philip's gold 
could purchase those liberties which the armies 
of Persia had been hurled against in vain. 

We may exclaim as Hazael to the prophet, 
is thy servant a dog that he should do this 
great thing ! A careless self-confidence is the 
surest omen of the fall of virtue. The lust of 
conquest and of blood is a craving which 
never cries enough, whose appetite is only 
sharpened by that on which it feeds. They 
who had conquered the world could not rest. 
When her victories had bore Rome to such a 
pitch of splendid degradation that spectacles 
of human agony and blood could alone satisfy 
even her female sex, when the stern virtue of 
the republic was gone, and there were no more 
nations in the known world to conquer, the 
arms of her legions were turned against each 
other. Her lieutenants fought among them- 
selves for the dictatorshi|) and the imperial 
purple, the blood of her children was shed in 
her streets, proscription sent her most virtu- 
ous and noble citizens to death, and the em- 
pire was sold by the army for gold. Then 
only was it that the strength of the barbari- 



182 REVIEW OF THE 



ans could force her defences of " ancient re- 
nown and disciplined valor." Then only did 
the flames of invasion blacken the vine^^n^rda 
of Italy, and the glory of Kome follow her lib- 
erties to the tomb. 

Our liberties were too costly to be lost by 
injustice and wrong. The cause of humanity 
is too dear to be thus sacrificed to unhallowed 
ambition. If w^e would avoid the fate of 
Rome, let us not commit her crimes, let us not 
despise her warning voice. 

Peace is pre-eminently the policy of a free 
people. Men longing for the establishment of 
freedom throughout the civilized world, look to 
us in confidence that we will not fail nor falter in 
its cause. Universal peace must co-exist with 
universal freedom. Founded in the same prin- 
ciples of the love of humanity and an enlarged 
sympathy, they are incapable long of separate 
existence, each is necessary to the other. It is 
the ofiSce of freedom to establish peace. Peace 
alone can perj^etuate freedom. War and des- 
potism are kindred curses. Liberty and peace 
should smile upon mankind together. Truly 
is our mission one of p3ace and good will to 
man. Liberty must be obtained by stern con- 



MEXICAN WAR. 183 



flict with oppression. The highest justice and 
humanity can alone preserve it. Moreover it 
is only by the exercise of these national vir- 
tues that we can present an example of free- 
dom to the world so attractive to man, that 
"before its influence thrones will crumble and 
their bulwarks pielt away. 

True patriotism is something widely differ- 
ent from that blind and thoughtless enthusi- 
asm w^hich cries my country right or wrong, 
which is fit to be made the instrument of de- 
signing ambition, but is unworthy to control 
the conduct of a free people. It knows no 
interest of its country opposed to the cause of 
humanity. It sees no good in any thing which 
must be obtained by wrong. It loves its coun- 
try too much silently to see it invading the sa- 
cred rights of others. It is a brave thing. 
It cannot be compelled to hold its peace, when 
its government engages in acts of injustice and 
wrong. 

Let us then as a nation banish from our minds 
these restless passions, which must conquer us, 
unless we rise and conquer them. Let us ex- 
ercise our ambition and seek our glory in the 
cultivation of peace, and in the attainment of 



184 REVIEW OF THE] 

a nobler and higher civilization. Let ns look 
for onr prosperity in the paths of tranquility, 
and strive to establish our liberties in exalted 
justice and love and good will to man. 



MEXICAN WAR. 185 



CHAPTER XV. 



Of the establishment of permanent peace among civilized nations. The 
means by which this object can be attained. The necessity which 
will justify a nation in resorting to arms. Prospect of the triumph 
of peace. 

The ancient heatlien poets, chroniclers of 
tlae earliest periods of tlie past, record tlie 
wonders of a golden age in times anterior to 
their own ; when man, clothed with the majesty 
of the celestial, gazed with undrooping eye 
upon the radiant forms of the immortals, and 
listened in free intercourse to the divine ora- 
cles that fell from their lips. But toward the 
void of coming ages their imagination seems 
never to have directed its flight. 

The Koman sang of that age when Saturn 
in his divinity walked on earth, and cast over 
their land a verdure, and over their sky a bril- 
liancy which yet bloomed in its fertile plains, 
and lingered in its balmy air and in its deep 



J85 REVIEW OF THE 

"blue lieavens, faint tokens of the former glori- 
ous presence of Deity. 

The Grecian loved to sing of the earth as it 
was when Orpheus tamed ferocity hy the 
strange enchantment of his lyre ; when through 
glade, by waterf^ill, *' beneath the glassy noon- 
tide and under the silver stars," beings of ce- 
lestial form and beauty were seen to walk, and 
every grove and every fountain was rendered 
lovely by the guardiancy of the Naiad and the 
Fawn. 

The Persian in the rich coloring of oriental 
fancy, describes a scene lovely as Paradise — • 
when Ormuzd held dominion over earth and 
ocean, when the Houri fanned a balmy air with 
lulling plumes, trod with tinkling feet on em- 
erald turf, and reposed in quiet beauty beneath 
a rose-colored sky, and the Peri sent up strange, 
ravishing melodies from the coral de^^ths of its 
ocean home. 

But the harp of the christian poet in that 
distant age was struck to a nobler song. 

The past had indeed themes for him far 
above all that heathen imagination could 
frame. For him God had created the heavens 
and the earth, had said "let there be light, and 



MEXICAN WAR. 187 



til ere was light," had fixed to the sea its bound. 
For him, man had dwelt in the beauty of in- 
nocence in a garden planted by the hand, and 
made glorious by the presence of the Lord. 
For him the bow of promise had been set in 
the clouds by the same Almighty One who in 
awful displeasure had brought a flood of wa- 
ters upon the earth, and beneath whose judg- 
ment of fire the smoke of the cities of the plain 
" went up as the smoke of a furnace." 

For him his fathers had been made to pass 
on dry land through the midst, while "the 
flood stood upright as an heap, and the depths 
were congealed in the heart of the sea." For 
him Jehovah had descended to earth, and with 
thunderings and lightnings and thick darkness 
and the voice of a trumpet had declared his 
law to man, while Sinai quaked at the pres- 
ence of its God. 

But nothing of all the past did he sing. His 
was a yet grander theme. In inspired vision 
the veil of the future had been lifted before 
him. He had heard from immortal lips the 
glad tidings of peace on earth and good will to 
men. He had beheld the exalted destiny of 
his race. He had witnessed the glorious spread 



• 



188 EEVIEW OF THE 

of that spiritual kingdom whicli sliall extend 
" from sea to sea, and from tlie river to tlie 
ends of tlie earth." 

Forgetting at once tlie present and tlie past, 
Ms rapt spirit passes into tlie deep bosom of 
the future, and beyond the shores of time, and 
in language most sublime breaks forth into re- 
joicing song. 

The Hebrew prophets point forward to a 
distant time when man should attain his luioh- 
est earthly development and happiness, and 
this they always represent as an age of peace. 
They employ the highest language of poetry, 
and the grandest imagery, to describe that 
reign of the Prince of Peace, when we are told 
that " the Lord will break the bow and the 
sword and the battle out of the earth, and will 
make them to lie down in safety ;" " men shall 
beat their swords into ploughshares, and their 
spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift 
up sword against nation, neither shall they 
learn war any more ;" " violence shall no more 
be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction 
within thy borders ;" " the wolf shall dwell 
with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down 
with the kid, the calf, the young lion and the 



MEXICAN WAR. IgQ 



fatling together, and a little child shall lead 
them." 

Since these prophecies were uttered, nearly 
three thousand years have elapsed. They yet 
remain entirely unfulfilled. No nation has 
ever exhibited to the world an example of the 
practice of peace. Indeed the condition of 
society has been such in every age, that no 
single state could, consistently with its own 
safety and with justice to its citizens, have 
neglected at any time its means of defence, or 
avoided always the calamities of war. 

The earth has been continually filled with 
the noise and the blood of battle. Civiliza- 
tion has exhibited its superiority over barba- 
rism not in avoiding war, but in perfecting its 
science. Still the believer in inspiration can- 
not doubt that the age of universal peace, so 
plainly foretold, will surely come. 

Can we now discern in the horizon of time, 
the signs of its coming ? Can we indulge the 
reasonable hope that its dawn will be in our 
day ? What are the means by which it can 
be hastened ? These are great practical ques- 
tions which involve the highest interests of hu- 



190 REVIEW OF THE 



inanity. They are questions wliicli a true phi- 
losophy is adequate to solve. 

This and this alone can direct aright the ef- 
forts of philanthropy, and point out the true 
means on which the peacemaker may rely for 
ultimate success. This can read in history the 
confirmation of prophecy, and discern in the 
past the auguries of the future. This can tell 
the lover of his race how and how alone peace 
on earth can be attained, and from its moun- 
tain top can signal to the multitude in the val- 
leys when to watch for the dawn of its glori- 
ous morning. 

Let us first inquire, then, if perchance we 
may discover what are the means by which 
permanent peace among civilized nations, when- 
ever it shall be attained, must be brought 
about. What are the influences, what are the 
motives in which and in which alone lies that 
great power to induce enlightened states to 
disband their armies, to convert their navies 
to the use of peaceful, friendship-strengthen- 
ing commerce, to dismantle their fortresses and 
dock- yards, to abandon war to the barbarian 
and the brute, and establish their intercourse 



MEXICAN WAR. igj 



on the principles of justice, humanity and 
peace ? 

Are there any means of which we can say, 
whenever peace on earth shall be established, 
by these and by these alone must it be done ? 
We believe that there are. 

All reasons which can be urged against the 
practice of war are embraced in these four; its 
cost, direct and indirect ; the suffering and loss 
of life that it occasions ; its injurious effects 
upon society ; its wickedness. The first three 
of these it will be perceived are consequences 
of war, the last is its character, as the act of 
moral bein2:s. 

The third reason which we have mentioned 
can hardly be included among arguments by 
which nations are to l^e influenced to peace. 
The unhappy effects of war upon the charac- 
ter of society, though undoubtedly the great- 
est of all its evils, are not palpable to the 
sense, are silent and almost unperceived in 
their operation, and their results, especially 
when withstood by counteractinsf influences, 
are slowly worked out throngh many genera- 
tions. It is impossible that these should be 
appreciated by the mass of mankind, they are 



192 REVIEW OF THE 



fully realized by but very few. They may 
therefore be properly omitted in our exam- 
ination. 

From the days of the good St. Pierre, hu- 
mane men have been laboring to persuade na- 
tions to peace, by portraying the horrors of 
war. The resources of language seem to have 
been exhausted in presenting startling pictures 
of its sacrifice of life, the amount of suffering 
which it occasions, the homes and hearts which 
it makes desolate. 

In this economical age, philosophers who are 
endeavoring to solve the great problems of so- 
ciety, have attempted to compute the cost oi 
war, and we hear the result in sums whose ag- 
gregate is almost beyond the reach of num- 
bers. 

To the presentation of these arguments 
against war, drawn from its consequences, the 
labors of many good men have been and are 
now directed ; but history proves to us that 
these have little if any effect to deter a brave 
people, or an ambitious government from its 
prosecution. 

The past and the present unite in testimony 
to this truth, that the power of numbers and 



MEXICAN WAR. I93 



language miglit be exerted till tlie end of time 
in demonstrating the wastefulness and por- 
traying the horrors of war, and were no other 
influence employed to prevent, its examples 
would not cease to multiply. 

If we seek in the philosophy of our nature 
for an explanation of this fact which is so 
plainly taught in history, we shall find abund- 
ant reason why this is and ever must be so. 

As w^ar is universal among men, we must 
seek for its causes among the common im- 
pulses of humanity. We find them in these 
three ; hatred, selfishness and the passion for 
excitement. The first is its most frequent 
cause in those ruder forms of society where 
passion is unrestrained and men have but lit- 
tle to be selfish of. The second is its exciting 
motive among civilized nations. These assume 
various forms of development, but all the same 
in essence. Every w^ar recorded in history has 
been prompted on the part of one combatant 
at least, by some motive directly referable to 
selfishness or hatred. 

The passion for excitement is common to 
every state of society, and finds in war its high- 
est gratification. Quickened into activity as 



194 REVIEW OF THE 

the rumor or tlie anticipation of war flies from 
mouth to moutli tlirougli a nation, it makes 
men blind to tlie w^rongs wliich tliey liave com- 
mitted, it magnifies the injuries w^hich they 
have received, it conjures up a thousand which 
have never existed ; for the multitude, who even 
in a free country can rarely give a single intel- 
ligent reason why they are engaged in war, it 
invents a thousand why their foe deserves 
neither pity nor forbearance, it cries to men 
that their national honor, something of w^hich 
they generally have a very indefinite idea, is 
at stake, it snatches aw^ay their reason. 

Nor must w^e overlook the influence of the 
pomp and circumstance and splendor with 
which w-ar is invested, not of the doctrine, 
handed down from the remotest antiquity and 
implicitly received by millions, and lately pre- 
sented in the United States senate* as a po- 
litical axiom, that military renown is the found- 
ation of national glory, and the proudest source 
of gratification to every man wdio loves his 
country. 

Nations as a general rule believe their quar- 
rel to be right. 

* See speech of Lewis Cass, Congressional Globe, 1347-3, page 87. 



MEXICAN WAR. 195 



It is a principle of rabble nature eagerly to 
believe every falseliood which, may be invent- 
ed to support their side of a dispute, and with 
equal vehemence to deny and ridicule all 
statements of their adversary. Thus it hap- 
pens, that w^hatever the truth may be, or what- 
ever doubts those who reflect may afterwards 
come to entertain, a nation hardly ever enters 
upon a war without feeling a sense of injury 
and a conviction that its cause is just. 

Let him who doubts this, consider the feel- 
ing which pervaded the mass of the American 
people at the commencement of the war with 
Mexico, certainly one of the most unjust and 
causeless outrages, on the part of our govern- 
ment, ever perpetrated by a civilized people. 
Let him remember how few there were, who in 
the excitement of that hour dared to doubt 
the righteousness of our cause, and the duty of 
every patriot to bid it God speed, and how 
their feeble voice w^as lost in the shout of the 
nation. 

Moreover the feelings excited by the conse- 
quences of war are themselves fleeting, and in- 
capable of producing on most minds a perma- 
nent impression. It may be questioned wheth- 



196 REVIEW OF THE 

er tlie sympatliy for suffering excited by the 
view or tlie description of a great battle is not 
well nigb lost in tlie entbusiasm and sense of 
sublimity inspired by marshaled armies and 
their magnificent array, the skillful combina- 
tions and varying fortune of the field, the shock 
of charging hosts over the trembling earth and 
amid the thunder of the cloud, the wliirlwind 
of pursuit and the shouts of victory. 

In these, then, passion and selfishness, self- 
justifying popular enthusiasm and love of ex- 
citement, the thirst for military renown, the 
fear of national shame, in these lie the causes 
of war ; these are the foes within itself, against 
which humanity must contend. Can they be 
overthrown, can their influence upon the con- 
duct of nations be destroyed by arguments 
drawn from the consequences of war ? 

These teach us only that war is a political 
evil. They show^ it to be a vast expense, an 
injury to commerce and to peaceful arts, and a 
waste of blood and life. Beyond this they can 
teach us nothing. Of its nature as a moral 
act they leave us profoundly ignorant. All 
our notions concerning the moral character of 
war will be found on examination to be deriv- 



MEXICAN WAR. 197 



ed from sources entirely different. From the 
fact that a certain act, we are ignorant what, 
caused suffering or loss of property or of life, 
we cannot conclude that that act was wrong. 
For all that we yet know it might have been 
wrong to have refrained from its commission. 
We demand first to know what the act was, 
and then from its nature, irrespective of its 
consequences, we determine its quality as right 
or wrong. 

The mass of men believe that it is glorious 
'^o triumph in battle ; the consequences of war, 
teaching it only to be a political evil, cannot 
effect that belief. They are powerless to de- 
stroy the excuses which selfishness and the de- 
sire of excitement frame to justify their grati- 
fication. 

Lies there then in this truth that war is a 
political evil the power to effect its abolish- 
ment. Can this counteract the influence of its 
splendor and the desire for military renown ? 
Is this truth, if universally admitted, able to 
calm the enthusiasm of a people, to induce 
them to forego the gratification of this most in- 
tense passion for excitement, and refrain from 
engaging in a w^ar which they believe to be 



198 REVIEW OF THE 



just, to persuade them to disobey wliat they 
esteem the voice of patriotism, and leave un- 
vindicated their country's honor, wMch they 
believe can only be maintained by arms ? 

The question suggests its own answer. 
There have been struggles in which it was the 
duty of men to engage, from which it would 
have been a crime to shrink. There is a ne- 
cessity which when it arises T\dll justify the 
appeal to arms. The consequences of war 
furnish a very erroneous principle by which to 
determine what this necessity is. For, viewed 
as a political evil, political necessity, it must be 
admitted, will justify a resort to it."^ Every 
state must be the judge of this necessity in its 
own case, and where is the nation that ever 
rushed, however blindly, into a contest which 
it did not persuade itself was necessary ? 



* The term political necessity is commonly used in a loose and indefi- 
nite sense, and is perhaps incapable of a jirecise definition. A mere 
evil to society may rightly be incurred when it becomes necessary for the 
attainment of a greater good. The propriety or wrong of incurring the 
evil is determined solely by the answer to the utilitarian question, will it 
or will it not effect a gi'eater good. And this can never be answered ab- 
solutely, but only according to the opinion of society itself. When in the 
judgment of a civilized state this calamity of war will be more than com- 
pensated by the good which through it they may reasonably expect with- 
out injustice to attain, there arises what we here call a political necessity 
for engaging in it. If war is indeed what its consequences can only 
prove it to be, a mere evil to society, political necessity of course justifies 
a resort to it. 



MEXICAN WAR. 199 



If appreliension of tlie consequences of war, 
wliicli cannot teacli us that it is wrong, nor 
correct tlie belief that it is the foundation of 
national glory, could avail to deter a nation 
from engaging in it, when political necessity 
seems to justify and demand it, that nation 
would surely be amenable to the charge of 
cowardice. A coward is one in whom the fear 
of the personal dangers and evils of war is 
strong enough to withstand and overcome 
the influence of excitement and passion. The 
higher motives and nobler feelings of our na- 
ture are not felt by him at all. A mere an- 
imal impulse in his breast is conquered by 
mere animal fear. But he whom the fear 
to do wTong sustains and bears triumphant 
through all influences and temptations to evil 
is the bravest of mankind. He lives in a higher 
world, and his conduct is governed by principles 
above the comprehension of the other. The 
latter obeys the highest, the former the low- 
est motives of human action. 

We see now that it is vain, and we see v/hy 
it is vain to attempt by prudential considera- 
tions to procure the abandonment of war, be- 
cause its causes lie in impulses of our nature to 



200 REVIEW OF THE 

whicli these cannot fiirnisli any counteracting 
principle. We see tliat tlie attempt would be 
no more fruitless to stop tlie torrent of Niaga- 
ra in tlie midst of its leap, than to stop tlie tide 
of human passion and of human blood by pre- 
senting, though it be never so fearful, a picture 
of its wastefulness and its calamities. And we 
see, moreover, not only that the consequences 
of war cannot restrain nations from its prac- 
tice, but that w^hen a political necessity seems 
to demand a resort to it, it would be a reproach 
to humanity if they could. 

There remains but one reason which can be 
urged against the practice of war. This is, 
that it is in its nature wrong — that for society 
to take human life, to deprive their fellow men 
of existence, the gift of their common Creator, 
over w^hich no dominion is given them, and 
which they cannot restore, is to invade the pre- 
rogative of Deity, is to commit a crime against 
thelaw^s of God. 

This truth, if it be a truth, cannot as we 
have seen be proven by any argument drawn 
from the consequences of war. They can only 
show it to be a political evil. A political evil 
can be justified by political necessity. A crime 



MEXICAN WAR. 201 



against divine law can be justified only by tlie 
necessity of self-preservation. 

Is then w^ar a crime ? The civilized portion 
of society regard war as an evil which it is 
wrong for governments wantonly to incur, 
which ought if possible to be avoided. But 
very few view^ it as a crime. Eegarding only 
its consequences, men generally do not con- 
sider it in respect to its nature at all. Is this 
popular view of war correct, or is it a fearful 
error ? 

The divine command, " thou shalt not kill," 
has been laid upon all mankind. Murder is 
regarded in a virtuous community with a feel- 
ing of horror. Men shrink from contact with 
the murderer as from pollution. One would 
smile, should we ask if this feeling was excited 
by the expense to the county which must at- 
tend the trial and execution of the murderer, 
or even by the suffering his victim might have 
endured, or the grief and anguish the death 
might have caused. No, it is the awful nature 
of the deed itself, the enormity of the crime 
of wantonly destroying the life of a fellow be- 
ing that shocks the moral sense of community. 

Civilized men admit the righteousness of 



202 REVIEW OF THE 

this command in its application to individuals, 
and murder is universally regarded as the most 
henious crime wliicli man can commit, or which, 
society is called upon to punish. 

]N"ow what is there that can make the same 
deed only a political evil w^hen committed by 
community in their collective capacity, which 
when done by an individual is the highest 
crime known to human or divine laws ? What 
can so change the nature of this act of taking 
human life, and make it now^ justifiable by po- 
litical necessity, and now only by the necessity 
of self-preservation ? Clearly nothing. There 
is no difference between the laws of public and 
private morality. The deed is the same by 
whomsoever committed. We conclude then 
that the popular sentiment concerning war is 
wrong ; that it is more than a political evil, 
that it is murder. 

Has then this truth that war is a crime the 
most dreadful that a nation can commit, has 
this truth the power, when universally recog- 
nized, to banish its practice from among civil- 
ized nations ? Can the conviction that war is 
murder counteract those "impulses of nature," 
passion, pride and the desire for excitement, 



MEXICAN WAR. 203 



and furnish to nations an ever active principle 
which shall prompt them to revolt at its per- 
petration ? It needs no argument to prove the 
affirmative of this question. Where war is es- 
teemed to be murder, it will be abhorred as 
murder. 

From this truth, and from this alone, there 
follow as corollaries that true patriotism nev- 
er, except as a last resort against intolerable 
oppression and injury, or in defence of life it- 
self, calls a nation to engage in war, but that 
on the contrary its voice is obeyed only in cul- 
tivating the spirit of fraternity and peace with 
all mankind ; that military renown is not the 
foundation of national glory ; that it is crimi- 
nal for enlightened states to make war the ar- 
biter of their disj)utes ; that standing armies, 
except when necessary as a protection against 
savages or outlaws, are a disgrace to christian 
governments. 

This furnishes us with the true principle by 
which to determine what that necessity is 
which will justify a nation in appealing to 
arms. 

The act of taking human life being the same 
in its nature whether it is called victory or 



204 REVIEW OF THE 



murder, it follows tliat the same necessity must 
be demanded in its justification whetlier it is 
committed by individuals or nations. 

Existence is the iirsfcgift of God to man, and 
liberty, tlie great right of responsible beings, 
is tbe second and equal one. It is not only 
the right, it is the highest duty of every man 
to defend his own life and the lives of others, 
particularly those of whom he is the natural 
protector, and if otherwise unable, to take the 
life of the assailant. So it is the undoubted 
right and duty of the African to take the life 
of the slave pirate, if by that means alone he 
can secure his freedom. And these, imminent 
danger to his life or his liberty, are the only 
circumstances which can justify a man in 
taking the life of his fellow man. 

A state is the guardian and protector of its 
people. It has then the undoubted right, nay, 
more, it is its most sacred duty to defend its 
own existence and the lives and liberty of its 
people against an internal or an external en- 
emy. It defends itself and its citizens by the 
same right against the murderer, the conspira- 
tor and the invader. There is always a wrong, 
a dreadful wrong attending the act, but it be- 



MEXICAN WAR. 205 



longs not to tlie injured state, it lies with tlie 
aggressor alone. 

It may be said that each nation must be the 
judge in its own case when this justifying ne- 
cessity arises. We answer very true, and fal- 
lible human nature, blinded by a thousand pre- 
judices, must often err in its judgment. But 
this is no argument against the existence of 
the right. The same objection would forbid 
an individual to defend his life. The cause of 
peace has only one hope. Just in proportion 
as the moral sense of a nation is cultivated, 
will that nation be emancipated from the do- 
minion of prejudice and passion, and be fitted 
rightfully to determine when that dreadful ne- 
cessity arises in which duty commands an ap- 
peal to the God of battles. It is evident that 
such an extreme necessity could hardly be pos- 
sible to arise between the United States and 
any other christian nation. 

The doctrine of non-resistance, which asserts 
that no possible necessity can ever justify war 
in any people, we think, and we have endeav- 
ored in these observations to show to be erro- 
neous. But it is not merely erroneous, it must 
be productive of unhappy effects upon the 



206 REVIEW OF THE 



cause of peace. For men can never be persua- 
ded that it is a crime to defend even to the 
last extremity that government from over- 
throw which their' fathers perchance have 
reared, and under whose protection they have 
reposed in security and happiness, their homes 
from violation, and those whom they hold 
dear from oppression, slavery and death. 

Men can never be persuaded that they com- 
mit a crime in fighting for the defence of those 
objects, for whose safety they are ready to of- 
fer up their lives. There is an impulse in every 
manly heart to be free. Peace, universal peace, 
can be founded only in its universal triumj)h. 
Kather than be enslaved, such a heart will 
cease to beat. It can never be convinced that 
when its freedom can be defended only by the 
death of its oppressor, it has no longer any 
right to be free. 

If this doctrine so abhorrent to humanity 
shall become associated in the minds of men 
with the principles of peace, it must retard 
their progress, and shut multitudes of brave 
hearts against their reception. 

We have now seen that the consequences of 
war, showing it only to be a political evil, can 



MEXICAN WAR. 207 



never persuade nations to its abandonment ; 
that a conviction tliat it is murder, a realiza- 
tion of tlie dreadful nature of the act itself, 
can alone furnish a motive for its abolish- 
ment sufficient to overcome those impulses of 
our nature which prompt to its continuance, 
and secure permanent peace among civilized 
nations. 

What then is the work of the peace maker ? 
It is well to present the exj^ense and the suf- 
fering occasioned by war. The more enormous 
its cost, and the greater its injury in every re- 
spect to the welfare of nations is shown to be, 
the more impolitic its practice must be consid- 
ered, and wars may sometimes be thus averted. 
But these cannot avail to abolish armies. 
These can form no foundation on which the 
civilized world can repose in the security of 
perpetual peace. 

Could a congress of nations, or the insertion 
of clauses of arbitration in treaties, or any other 
scheme, if adopted by nations, afford such a 
foundation ? Is it the mission of the peace 
maker to contrive and labor for the establish- 
ment of one or another of these ? 

We confess we entertain no high opinion of 



208 REVIEW OF THE 



the utility of any sucli contrivances. We see 
very little in them but harmless abstractions, 
impracticable to be established till the time shall 
come when they will probably be useless. 
When christian nations realize what war is, and 
determine to abandon its practice ; when they 
realize w^hat peace is, and determine to culti- 
vate its spuit and to cherish its blessings, they 
will readily devise means, if indeed any means 
shall be necessary, for the attainment and secu- 
rity of the good which they desire, and for 
the prevention of the w^rong which they abhor. 

If the principles of peace are to govern the 
conduct of nations at some future day, the 
means which statesmen may then think proper 
to adopt for carrying them into practice are of 
very little consequence to us now\ All that 
can well be left to those who shall first forever 
sheath the sword. 

And on the other hand, before such a moral 
revolution shall be effected, though a congress 
of nations, or some other nicely adjusted plan 
for the settlement of national disputes should 
be established, voluntary submissicm would be 
very unlikely to follow its decisions. It is 
more than questionable, whether in the pres- 



MEXICAN WAR. 209 



ent state of society nations would, even in tlie 
majority of cases, yield their claims at tlie bid 
of an umpire or a tribunal wliich would have 
no power of enforcing its judgments. 

Peace can find its only security in an exalted 
moral sense, a hatred of war because it is wrong, 
a love of peace because its cultivation is right, 
diffused among nations and throughout all 
classes of society. Without this, every plan 
which philanthropic ingenuity can devise will 
be visionary and vain, valuable and useful with- 
out doubt if all men thought and felt as do the 
theorists who contrived it, but precisely un- 
adapted to society as it is, beautiful perhaps 
and worthless as the republic of Plato, like a 
corpse perfect in all its minutest parts, nicely 
adapted to the purposes for which it is design- 
ed, but cold and powerless, unanimated by any 
informing soul, utterly destitute of the princi- 
ple of life. 

When nations shall show a mutual willing- 
ness to disband their armies, actually to put 
out of their hands the means of injuring each 
other, then and not till then we may reasona- 
bly expect that society will sustain, or more 
likely find wholly unnecessary, institutions of 
7* 



210 REVIEW OF THE 

peace. But before tliis time shall arrive a 
great revolution must be effected in tlie 
thoughts and notions of men. Noiseless and 
unperceived as tlie fliglit of tlie world through 
space, it will be a gradual awakening to truth, 
a slow imbibing of the principles of justice 
and peace, the still-increasing influence of the 
law of kindness in the study, in the workshop, 
in the fields, in the schoolhouse, in the place of 
worship, over all christian lands. 

Here lies the work of the peace maker. Hia 
is the labor to urge and to guide this deep re- 
sistless movement of humanity. It is his mis- 
sion to proclaim first this great truth, that war 
is distinguishable only in its enormity from 
murder. His it is to implant in the hearts of 
men the deep conviction that war is wrong, 
that it is the greatest wickedness, the most 
abominable crime w'hich society can commit, 
for it is only thi^ truth, realized and felt, that 
can effect r.ny enduring change in the disposi- 
tion end conduct of nations. 

By these means the moral sense of mankind 
will become elevated and quickened, and the 
feeling that the practice of war is disgraceful 
to human beings will come to take deeper and 



MEXICAN WAR. 211 



deeper hold upon community. As men be- 
come more and more alive to the true nature 
of war, as in the course of time the feeling of 
horror at its commission shall have become, as 
it ought to be, equal in degree to that with 
which murder is regarded in a virtuous com- 
munity, all minor considerations will be swal- 
low^ed U23, all thought of its consequences will 
be forofotten, in the sense of the dreadful wick- 
edness inherent in the act itself 

But the aj)ostle of peace has a still higher 
truth to proclaim than that w^ar is wrong. 

There is a deeper and broader foundation 
still than this, on which the cause of peace is 
ordained to be established. The truth whose 
power we have been considering is wholly 
negative in its character. It can counteract 
indeed for the most j)ai't the influence of the 
passions in which w^ar has its birth, but it can- 
not effect their existence, nor Avholly destroy 
their activity. 

Man has a higher duty than to abandon war, 
it is to cherish peace. There is something bet- 
ter than the absence of anger, it is the presence 
of love. There is a nobler truth than that 
mankind should be no more enemies, it is that 



212 REVIEW OF THE 



they are brethren, the work of a common Cre- 
ator, the partakers of a common humanity, the 
common possessors of vast capacities and gift- 
ed alike with an immortal nature. 

The love of all mankind — this indeed can 
abolish war, for where it exists passion and sel- 
fishness and pride must be extinguished. Uni- 
versal brotherhood — this is the sun of human- 
ity, of freedom, of peace, before whose rising 
fleets and armies, like morning mists, shall dis- 
appear from the face of the earth. Fraternity 
is the all-embracing principle, whose develop- 
ment shall mark an era in this world's history, 
when higher and more noble principles of ac- 
tion shall govern the conduct of nations, when 
the reign of violence shall give place forever 
to the reign of benevolence and love. 

Some philosophers declare that while human 
nature remains the same, peace among men 
can never be attained. We admit it. And 
reasoning from their premises, the melancholy 
conclusion is inevitable. These brisrht anti- 
cipations can never be realized. Nations will 
never practically obey the law of kindness. 
Prophecy is false War must stain the earth 
forever. 



MEXICAN WAR. 213 



But tliey leave out of view an element of 
Jiuman advancement, compared with which all 
other means for the elevation of man sink to 
nothing. There is a power which can change 
human nature. Christianity, whose sublime 
precepts are in perfect harmony with the prin- 
ciples of our moral being, w^hose miraculous 
agency can reach to the impulses of the breast, 
can calm the passions and subdue the appetites 
of men, can free the heart from the dominion of 
selfishness, and establish over it the empire of 
love, Christianity alone can banish from the 
earth a crime and a curse which is the offspring 
of passions, and persuade nations to that justice 
and forgiveness which are the attributes of God. 

These observations indicate the true answer 
to the question, when shall the earth witness 
the triumph of peace. There will be, doubt- 
less, many efforts made to attain this end be- 
fore mankind shall be prepared for it. Admi- 
rable plans will be devised, not without labor 
and sMH, to bring about what the mass of men 
do not feel the need of, and to suppress that 
which they have never realized to be wrong, 
and over which they do not mourn. Many 
good men will look upon their own contrivan- 



214 REVIEW OF THE 

ces, the only difficulty about whose operation 
is that all men do not feel as they do, as certain 
to cure, or at least to alleviate, this scourge of 
humanity. 

But the evil lies far beyond the reach of any 
Buch machinery. We have seen that the age 
of peace cannot arrive, except an abhorrence 
of war as a crime, and a love of all mankind 
as brethren shall take root in the hearts of 
men, and grow and increase, until they shall 
spread over the world their peaceful shade. 

To one whose view is bounded by the j^res- 
ent hour, the aspect of Christendom must ap- 
pear full of discouragement. Our own nation 
has recently passed through a causeless war 
for conquest. Europe is resounding with the 
din of arms. For more than a year and a half 
violence and confusion have filled her ancient 
capitals wdth consternation. Black, porten- 
tious clouds brood over the coming years. So- 
ciety is like a strange and lonely river, which 
in the multitude of its windings seems to the 
disheartened voyager to flow back forever to 
the spot from whence it came. But he who 
from some high mountain can trace the stream 
through the vast lanndscape, beholds it among 



MEXICAN WAR. 215 



confining rocks and liills steadily pursuing its 
only coui'se, until its windings ended, its turbu- 
lence ceased, in the far distance it emerges into 
tlie open plain, and flows majestic to the ocean. 

" The age of chivalry," said a great English 
writer, "has passed, that of speculators and po- 
litical economists has succeeded, and the glory 
of Europe has departed forever." He w^ho, 
unaffected by any such sentimentalism as this, 
intelligently compares the present with the ac- 
tual, not the ideal, past, will discover among 
the nations of Christendom a great and won- 
derful development of mind, and progress in 
the princijDles of freedom, justice and peace. 
He will see that the civilization of the present 
day possesses far different elements, and a far 
more exalted character than any which the an- 
cient w^orld ever knew. 

He looks back upon the barbarous laws of 
the nations of Europe in the dark ages, which 
regarded foreigners as enemies, and gave up to 
pillage and slavery the stranger cast upon 
their inhospitable shores. He remembers the 
hatred and feuds among great subjects of the 
same states w^hich found vent in perpetual pri- 
vate wars ; barons who maintained their state 



216 REVIEW OF THE 

and retainers by plunder ; kings who, often im- 
potent to protect tlieir subjects from eacli otlier, 
aimed only to compel tlieir servile submission, 
and to draw from tliem as from an estate, tlie 
greatest possible amount of revenue for tlieir 
pleasures and of service for tlieir wars; a 
cliurcli tlie foundations of w^liose power were 
tlie superstition of its worshippers and the am- 
bition of its priests ; the intrigues and crimes of 
which every court in Europe w^as continually 
the scene ; the lawlessness and strife which fill- 
ed all lands wdth violence in those fierce and 
turbulent times. 

He remembers rooted national animosities, 
handed down for centuries, now becoming for- 
gotten and dead. He looks back on ages of 
persecution where now^ toleration reigus, and 
the faggot and the stake have given place to 
the peaceful, mighty pen. He reads how the 
chivalry of Europe marched to conquer and 
destroy, where he sees the missionary go to 
teach and to save. 

He sees th eold selfish political dogmas and 
systems of Europe exploded. He beholds the 
rapid abolishment of all artificial destructions 
in society and all forms of rank. In the place 



MEXICAN WAR. ^If 



of efforts to oppress and degrade, he witnesses 
exertions to raise up and clothe the toil-worn 
body of humanity. He sees the press, a power 
of which " the age of chivalry " never dreamed, 
diffusing knowledge and truth to the remotest 
corners of the earth. 

He sees communities living in peace and 
happiness, the sciences and arts which at once 
enrich, adorn and elevate society, progressing 
with amazing rapidity, commerce spreading its 
peaceful wings over the globe and stretching- 
its cords of unity from shore to distant shore, 
all under just and equal institutions at once 
their protection and encouragement. He be- 
holds society seeking in its midst and to the 
ends of the earth objects for its benevolence, 
and the horrors of war itself mitigated by hu- 
mane and generous laws. 

He searches for the causes of the wars and 
commotions which are now shaking the states 
of Europe. It is whole races of earnest, so- 
ber men determined to be free, rising to vin- 
dicate their great right to think for themselves 
and to act for themselves. He considers the 
struggles which men are everywhere making 
to free themselves from ignorance, that dread- 



218 REVIEW OF THE 

ful slavery of tlie soul. He remarks the ten- 
dency of tlie age to recognize the dignity of 
man as man, the same immortal nature, still 
high though fallen, the same image of its Ma- 
ker, majestic though obscured, in every indi- 
vidual that wears the form of humanity. 

He sees the jDrincijDles of joeace beginning to 
receive the serious consideration of men. A 
year ago a world's convention of the friends 
of peace assembled at Brussels. Some of the 
great political minds of Europe took part in 
its proceedings. The premier of England ex- 
pressed his warm sympathy with the cause in 
which they were eugaged. The journals of 
England and the continent, united in express- 
ing the highest respect for its character and its 
objects. While we write, a similar convention 
is setting in Paris. A century ago these men, 
could such men have been found, would have 
been ridiculed as visionaries. Now all intelli- 
gent minds bid them God speed in their glo- 
rious work. 

All these things must have a cause. The 
ancient world attained to no such civilization 
as this. Its civilization was little else than an 
awakening of the intellect. That of this age 



MEXICAN WAR. 219 



is moreover the exaltation of the nature of 
man. It is the attainment of higher and juster 
principles for the government of society, the 
development of nobler feelings and kindlier 
sympathies in the hearts of men. To what 
shall this he ascribed? Christianity, which 
alone has ever awakened in man the feeling of 
universal philanthropy, or revealed to him the 
sublime truth of universal brotherhood, must 
be regarded as the great element of modern 
civilization, not only distinguishing it in these 
respects, but giving to it an ever progressive 
character, by revealing forever higher ends for 
human attainment, affording grander objects 
of thought, a nobler standard and examples of 
excellence, and more glorious motives for the 
practice of virtue. 

Now in view of these things, we can look 
toward the future with more than a blind 
faith. We know that Europe must be eman- 
cipated. That the struggle must go on until 
the men of Christendom shall establish forever 
their independence and equality. Will hu- 
manity stop there ? No, the work is but half 
done, until the thoughts of every man among 
the great nations of the world shall be refined, 



220 MEXICAN WAR. Q^ 



liberalized, ennobled by tlie genius of univer- 
sal education. 

Then will follow peace. Then must be at- 
tained this crowning glory of civilization, when 
armies and navies with all the science and mag- 
nificence of this dreadful crime shall follow 
the spirit of hatred to the tomb. 

Freedom and education are the sisters of 
peace. Daughters of religion, they dwell in 
an eternal unity. 



THE END. 



LBS 14 



